Navara, Sarana Score Stunning European Rapid & Blitz Triples
GM Alexey Sarana's sole first place in the European Rapid Chess Championship 2023 in Zagreb means he's achieved a remarkable triple—winning the European Individual, Team, and Rapid events in the same year. GM David Navara prevented a quadruple as he defended the European Blitz Chess Championship he won in 2022, making him a three-time champion after he first picked up the title in 2014. Chess legend GM Vasyl Ivanchuk took silver.
When we first reported on the European Rapid and Blitz Championships that took place December 14-16 in Zagreb, Croatia, it was to highlight one of the most impressive performances ever seen by an eight-year-old player. British girl WCM Bodhana Sivanandan won the women’s prize in the blitz and is threatening to be a real-life Beth Harmon.
🤯 👽
— Levon Aronian (@LevAronian) December 17, 2023
Check out more on Sivanandan here.
The European speed chess championships are mass-participation events, however, and while it’s impossible to summarize the action—435 players took part in the rapid, and 555 in the blitz—let’s at least take a look at the winners.
Alexey Sarana Claims Triple Crown
23-year-old Sarana earlier this year scored an unbeaten 8.5/11 to win the European Championship in Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia, then scored an unbeaten 6/8 as his adopted team Serbia were surprise winners of the European Team Championship in Budva, Montenegro.
That was why, perhaps, there was an air of inevitability about how he went on to win the 11-round European Rapid Championship. Once again, he was undefeated.
Sarana’s grinding style is perfect for rapid and blitz, and when he missed some wins in a 99-move game against GM Markus Ragger in the penultimate round he shrugged that off and came back to beat 21-year-old Dutch GM Casper Schoppen in 119 moves. Sarana's two bishops defeated Schoppen's two knights, with one knight suddenly trapped and eliminated.
Alexey Sarana 🇷🇸 wins European Rapid Chess Championship 2023 after dramatical last round! 🏆
— European Chess Union (@ECUonline) December 15, 2023
Sarana won his game against Casper Schoppen 🇳🇱 to emerge as the sole Winner of the event with 9.5 points and to claim his third European Champion title this year! After winning European… pic.twitter.com/T4qwjSAUcS
GMs Haik Martirosyan and Bogdan-Daniel Deac were the only players to make a draw against Sarana, and they also finished unbeaten as they claimed silver and bronze respectively.
IM Laura Unuk won the women’s prize after scoring 7.5/11, putting her in 47th place, ahead of the likes of GMs Ivanchuk and Laurent Fressinet.
In an interview before the event the Slovenian women's number-one explained that she was planning to take a break from chess while completing her studies in biochemistry but, "It was like some kind of addiction—at first I told myself that I would only go to one competition, but I quickly started attending more of them."
The final standings at the top looked as follows: (full standings)
2023 European Rapid Championship Final Standings
| Rk. | SNo | Name | Typ | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 | Rp | K | rtg+/- | |
| 1 | 7 | GM | Sarana, Alexey | 2649 | 9.5 | 79 | 84.5 | 5 | 8 | 2779 | 10 | 18.4 | ||
| 2 | 8 | GM | Martirosyan, Haik M. | 2634 | 9 | 80 | 86.5 | 6 | 7 | 2745 | 10 | 17.2 | ||
| 3 | 10 | GM | Deac, Bogdan-Daniel | 2623 | 9 | 77.5 | 83 | 5 | 7 | 2728 | 10 | 16.5 | ||
| 4 | 20 | GM | Schoppen, Casper | 2553 | 8.5 | 77 | 83 | 6 | 7 | 2677 | 10 | 20.7 | ||
| 5 | 2 | GM | Bacrot, Etienne | 2674 | 8.5 | 77 | 83 | 5 | 6 | 2659 | 10 | 2.1 | ||
| 6 | 30 | GM | Gavrilescu, David | U20 | 2522 | 8.5 | 76.5 | 81 | 5 | 6 | 2625 | 10 | 18.5 | |
| 7 | 4 | GM | Jobava, Baadur | 2671 | 8.5 | 76 | 82 | 5 | 7 | 2612 | 10 | -3.2 | ||
| 8 | 31 | IM | Maksimovic, Bojan | 2519 | 8.5 | 76 | 80.5 | 5 | 7 | 2581 | 10 | 17.2 | ||
| 9 | 27 | GM | Stevic, Hrvoje | 2535 | 8.5 | 75 | 80.5 | 5 | 7 | 2545 | 10 | 4.8 | ||
| 10 | 62 | GM | Maurizzi, Marc`andria | U16 | 2411 | 8.5 | 75 | 80 | 5 | 8 | 2632 | 10 | 33.7 | |
| 11 | 19 | GM | Pultinevicius, Paulius | 2557 | 8.5 | 75 | 79 | 5 | 7 | 2595 | 10 | 8.1 | ||
| 12 | 9 | GM | Safarli, Eltaj | 2630 | 8.5 | 74.5 | 80 | 5 | 7 | 2519 | 10 | -6.9 | ||
| 13 | 13 | GM | Ragger, Markus | 2621 | 8.5 | 72.5 | 78.5 | 5 | 6 | 2605 | 10 | 2 | ||
| 14 | 22 | GM | Fedorchuk, Sergey A. | 2545 | 8.5 | 71.5 | 77 | 6 | 8 | 2547 | 10 | 3.5 | ||
| 15 | 1 | GM | Navara, David | 2708 | 8.5 | 71.5 | 77 | 5 | 8 | 2601 | 10 | -8 | ||
| 16 | 21 | GM | Indjic, Aleksandar | 2552 | 8.5 | 70.5 | 75.5 | 5 | 8 | 2561 | 10 | 3.9 | ||
| 17 | 29 | GM | Kozul, Zdenko | 2524 | 8.5 | 69.5 | 74 | 5 | 7 | 2551 | 10 | 8.2 | ||
| 18 | 93 | IM | Aizenberg, Benny | U18 | 2335 | 8.5 | 67.5 | 71.5 | 6 | 7 | 2501 | 20 | 54.6 |
David Navara Does It Again
Twelve-time Czech Champion Navara first won the European Blitz Championship in Warsaw in 2014, before winning the title again in another Polish city, Katowice, in 2022. The 38-year-old has now won back-to-back titles after being an (almost) unstoppable force in Zagreb.
IM Gabriel Gaehwiler caught Navara in the opening in round four, but around that loss the Czech star won 10 games, including becoming the first player to take down Sarana.
The blunder 23.Rc1? ran into the deadly 23…Qe8!.
The only other person to beat Sarana in an official European event in 2023 had been a certain GM Magnus Carlsen, in the European Club Chess Championship, and Sarana didn’t handle this new loss well—he blundered and lost to eventual Montenegrin bronze medalist GM Denis Kadric in the next round.
Navara paused for one quiet draw against Ivanchuk, then won a French-defense thriller against French GM Etienne Bacrot. It wasn’t flawless chess, but Navara’s fighting spirit was fittingly rewarded.
Always the gentleman, Navara immediately began resetting the pieces after the final move.
David Navara 🇨🇿 wins European Blitz Chess Championship 2023! 🏆
— European Chess Union (@ECUonline) December 16, 2023
Navara won the last round against GM Etienne Bacrot 🇫🇷 to emerge as the sole winner of the event with the score of 11.5/13 points! After winning the European Blitz Championship 2022 in Katowice, David Navara… pic.twitter.com/fTgUez9BvF
It was also thrilling to see 54-year-old Ivanchuk in full flow. The Ukrainian former world number-two won 10 games, drew two, and only missed out on gold because he lost on time in a position that had been winning a move earlier in round two.
The final standings at the top looked as follows: (full standings)
2023 European Blitz Championship Final Standings
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 | |
| 1 | 4 | GM | Navara, David | 2661 | 11.5 | 112.5 | 118.5 | 6 | 11 | |
| 2 | 3 | GM | Ivanchuk, Vasyl | 2678 | 11 | 104.5 | 111 | 7 | 10 | |
| 3 | 13 | GM | Kadric, Denis | 2591 | 10.5 | 109.5 | 115.5 | 7 | 9 | |
| 4 | 15 | GM | Saric, Ivan | 2586 | 10.5 | 108 | 114.5 | 7 | 9 | |
| 5 | 2 | GM | Sarana, Alexey | 2707 | 10 | 109.5 | 117.5 | 6 | 9 | |
| 6 | 1 | GM | Martirosyan, Haik M. | 2770 | 10 | 109.5 | 116 | 6 | 10 | |
| 7 | 7 | GM | Bacrot, Etienne | 2640 | 10 | 108.5 | 115 | 7 | 10 | |
| 8 | 9 | GM | Mamedov, Rauf | 2635 | 10 | 108 | 112.5 | 7 | 8 | |
| 9 | 11 | GM | Jobava, Baadur | 2599 | 10 | 107.5 | 113.5 | 7 | 9 | |
| 10 | 21 | GM | Plat, Vojtech | 2554 | 10 | 105.5 | 111.5 | 7 | 10 | |
| 11 | 5 | GM | Safarli, Eltaj | 2653 | 10 | 104.5 | 110 | 6 | 8 | |
| 12 | 50 | IM | Stankovic, Milos | 2445 | 10 | 100 | 106 | 6 | 10 | |
| 13 | 35 | IM | Baidetskyi, Valentin | 2507 | 10 | 98.5 | 104 | 7 | 9 | |
| 14 | 27 | GM | Grigoriants, Sergey | 2532 | 10 | 96.5 | 102.5 | 6 | 9 |
The next big rapid and blitz event on the horizon is the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships 2023 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, that runs December 26-30. Carlsen will be attempting to defend his two remaining world championship titles, while a great result might mean Candidates qualification for one of the other players.
Colin McGourty led news at Chess24 from its launch until it merged with Chess.com a decade later. An amateur player, he got into chess writing when he set up the website Chess in Translation after previously studying Slavic languages and literature in St. Andrews, Odesa, Oxford, and Krakow.
