2009 World Team Championship (Bursa, Turkey)
Many of the world’s top chess federations will assemble in the Bursa province of Turkey for the World Team Championships. Some of the notable teams represent perennial powers Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Israel and USA. Also included in the field is India, the world’s #6 team Despite the fact that World Champion Viswanathan Anand is busy preparing for his match, India will trot out two young talents as reserves.
Perhaps the favorite will be the reigning European Champion, Azerbaijan who will field their strongest possible team. Other teams vying for the crown have one or more players missing from the top. Russia is missing Vladimir Kramnik, but still has a formidable 2700 team. This tournament will be key for Russia to prove that they are capable of winning a team event after struggles in the past decade. In coming years, the team may get stronger if they add Sergey Karjakin.
Other teams competing from the various regions are Brazil, Egypt, Greece and host Turkey. Ali Nihat Yacizi has fueled the engine of chess growth in Turkey and this is the latest of his efforts to make Turkey a competitive chess country. Although his projections are ambitious, he claims to have two million youth playing chess. Certainly many out of this number will be inspired by seeing the elite players and may one day represent their country at this same tournament.
Main Site: https://wtcc2009.tsf.org.tr/