European Russian Draughts Championship 2025 (Anton van Berkel)
Anton van Berkel
We present to your attention an article by Anton van Berke, deleted from the website kndb.nl due to the fact that she describes a tournament organized by the IDF. Censorship in checkers? It’s phenomenal, but it’s a fact.
The European Russian Draughts Championship was held in Kemer (Turkey) from April 12 to 17. There are 2 rules in this sport, which differ from our draughts, which we play in the Netherlands. For comparison, if it were a line on a 10×10 board: white piece on 15 and 13, black piece on 44, 10 and 4. White wins with a move of 13-9 4×13 15x4x22x50. The round begins with the drawing of the initial moves and positions. The game consists of two micro-matches, in which you play once with white and once with black.
Athletes from Russia and the Republic of Belarus dominated the tournament both quantitatively and qualitatively. Half of the participants came from these two countries. After the European Championship, the World Cup was held, which was attended by other athletes from Russia, who, of course, would also have taken high places if they had participated in the European Championship. The level of the players was very high.
There were 8 rounds of the preliminary stage, after which the top 8 advanced to the quarterfinals. Since no more than 3 players from each country were allowed into the quarterfinals (according to the official rules of the championship), and it soon became clear that 6 places in the final standings would go to Russia and Belarus, representatives from other countries competed for the remaining 2 spots in the quarterfinals.
I suffered 3 defeats in the first 6 rounds of the tournament. I was given the opportunity to warm up in the first round, having drawn with the reigning European champion Roman Shchukin in the first game of the micromatch. In the second game of the micromatch, I made one mistake (!) when building, and after that, there was no chance to save her anymore. According to the sum of the two games of the micromatch, I lost. In the fourth round, I beat Andrei Katana, a Belgian from Moldova, in a 9-on-9 gambit position.. In the 5th round, I drew with a legendary man: Azerbaijani Grandmaster Elshad Mursalov, USSR champion in Russian draughts in 1975. In the 7th round, I defeated Moldavian Alexander Karaulny, and in the eighth round I managed to defeat 15-year-old Bulgarian Mark Kamynin.
As a result of the preliminary stage, I managed to beat Grandmaster Arno Uutma from Estonia by a coefficient. And I became the first Dutchman to reach the quarterfinals of Russian draughts. I have received many compliments and warm words for this remarkable achievement.
In the quarterfinals, I faced the first seed, grandmaster Roman Shchukin. The lowest ranked player had to win the micro-match in the quarterfinals in order to advance to the next stage. Still, it was too unattainable for me, and I was quite satisfied with my draw. Then the battle for places 5 to 8 began. I got the chance to play against an old acquaintance from our draughts world: world champion grandmaster Alexander Georgiev (see photo). I also had to try to win this match, taking into account my result in the preliminary stage. My attempt to win the 2nd game ended in a loss for me. In the last match for 7th and 8th places, I drew with Marat Lev, which left me in 8th place at the end of the final competitions.
Roman Shchukin won the European Championship in the men’s competition for the second year in a row, and Sandaara Aprosimova from Yakutia won the women’s competition..
After the classic program, on April 18, 2025, the European Championship in Brazilian draughts in the Rapid program took place. The victory was won by Artem Tikhonov and Victoria Nikolaeva from the Republic of Belarus..
And then, on April 19, 2025, the European Russian Draughts Championship took place in the Blitz program. Igor Mikhalchenko from the Republic of Belarus and Tunaara Fedorova from Yakutia won.
The tournament was held at a very high level. I am the only representative from the Netherlands who participates in such competitions. And the first one who achieved such a high result.