Performance: A Look at the Results of EYC2026—Countries. Part Two.

Let’s return to the discussion of the national teams’ performance at the European Youth Draughts Championship, as well as to the prospects for the development of youth sports in developed capitalist countries. At the moment, only one of the national teams that participated in the European Championship can look to the future with confidence, without fearing a loss of interest in draughts among young people, and can expect excellent athletic results from its players—the Dutch national team. A well-developed system of youth tournaments, as well as federation-level support for organizing youth sports, has become a tradition for Dutch draughts players. And if other federations were to adopt this policy, we could truly speak of the development of our sport.

Part One is here

But for the policy regarding the development of the checkers movement to change, we need different local leaders and a complete shift in direction. As long as coaches at the local level continue to age and new coaches are as hard to find as a needle in a haystack, the checkers movement is doomed. A policy focused on individual coaches’ profits by offering private lessons, rather than a policy of developing a club system, could lead to the collapse of the entire local draughts education system and the demise of the youth movement.

And we are already seeing some signs of this collapse unfolding: at competitions held throughout Europe. Most tournaments are attended by older or not-so-young people, and it’s becoming increasingly rare to see a young, attractive face or figure on live broadcast. As a result, the draughts movement risks turning into a sort of exclusive “closed club” for “insiders” in its worst form. We need young coaches, youth tournaments in European capitalist countries with substantial prize money, and a change in leadership at the local level within regional sports federations. After all, political puppets—whose actions are aimed at disqualifying and persecuting players for political reasons—with the support of a relatively dim-witted (well, let’s call it what it is) following, are dooming the sport to collapse and utter ruin. It’s becoming uninteresting.

And when people ask us why chess is more popular and more glamorous than checkers, we can offer a huge number of arguments—whether some people like it or not. Major federations, such as the Russian Chess Federation and the Chess Federation of the Republic of Belarus, continue to be active in chess in one form or another. Why isn’t this the case with draughts, and why has it become a sport for the poor? Ask the local federation leaders and the leadership of the international federation. This brings to mind the proud motto: “Better without pants, but at least we’re moving forward, gritting our teeth.”

The eternal paradox of checkers: geekiness and poverty, defying common sense.

So, here are the statistics at the national team level: Photo01, Photo002

1. Let’s take another look at the photos in our report. Four of the 12 national teams in the European Championship did not win a single medal. And while this is understandable for the Czech and Hungarian teams due to objective circumstances—such as a lack of qualified coaches, and in the case of the Hungarian team, four years of persecution by the former leadership—the Czech team, with its rich traditions, could have competed for at least one set of medals. The situation looks particularly dismal for the national teams of the countries that were among the founding members of the FMJD. The French national team brought only eight players and, as we have already noted, did not participate in the Rapid and Blitz events, thereby underscoring once again the lack of quality and the appropriate level of prestige in these events. And the situation for the Belgian national team looks downright tragic. Having only two participants from the country is evidence of a complete collapse of youth policy and the imminent demise of the draughts movement in yet another European country.
2. The Azerbaijan national team proved to be the most effective in terms of results, while the Hungarian national team was the least effective. But this is just a first impression. We will again use the “Solkoff coefficient” and “discard” the best and worst results from our tables. After all, with only one participant and a single medal per country, it’s impossible to judge the effectiveness of their efforts or the development of youth sports. And with the Azerbaijani team—which includes the very talented and charming Ali Banu—we’re seeing a scenario that could play out in many other countries in the absence of adequate youth policies. Individual coaches, when adopting a personalized approach, seem like a good idea; but they will never yield results in the development of the sport as a whole. Therefore, the effectiveness here is somewhat bittersweet. As for the Hungarian national team, we hope they’ll find coaching talent or reach an agreement with a well-known draughts specialist to raise the level of Hungarian draughts players’ performance, just as was done in Poland, China, and several other countries. After all, the improvement in the Hungarian draughts players’ skills is evident, and all that’s missing are a few key steps to make a small leap forward. We sincerely wish them the best of luck and will always be rooting for them.
3. Now let’s turn to the actual national teams and real assessments of their effectiveness. As can be seen from the tables (take a close look at Table 2, in particular), where we evaluated the performance of national team players only in the statistically significant age groups U13, U16, and U19, the most effective teams were those of Ukraine, Italy, the Netherlands, and Poland. As we noted in the first part of our review, the U10 and U26 age groups cannot be taken into account due to a number of objective circumstances. Let’s take a look at the most effective national teams one by one:

3.1  The Ukrainian national team emerged as the most effective team at the European Championship in Tallinn. Many of the team’s players have competed in major international tournaments, and it is worth noting that the country’s draughts school remains strong. The two leading players, Kateryna Musiienko and Matvey Koliesnikov, made the greatest contribution to the team. Despite a small number of participants (only 16 people in the selected groups), the team won 10 medals with an efficiency coefficient of 63%. Of the total number of medals, 3 were gold.

3.2. Italian National Team: We consider this championship an undeniable breakthrough for Italian draughts players. As we predicted, in the girls’ U13 division, Damari Clara won the bronze medal in the classic format after a fiercely contested match. This is an undeniable achievement for the young draughts player, who has already shone at her own national championship this year. It is also worth noting a young player with a distinctive playing style: Jacopo De Lellis. He is capable of changing his positional style during a game, utilizing various checkers techniques, and also possesses strong combinatorial skills. Despite having a small number of participants—only 10 players in the selected groups—the Italian national team won four medals, including one gold, with an efficiency coefficient of 40%. A respectable result.

3.3. The Netherlands National Team: The only team in the European Championship that can afford to focus on quality and make long-term plans. The only team that can afford to field two charming young women on the junior boys’ team for the second year in a row. Last year, there was a similar experiment with Matheo Boxum, who competed in a higher age group. Here, the focus is not on the number of medals, but on plans to improve the quality of play and the opportunity to prepare their draughts players for more serious competitions. We commend the character and determination of Yulia Bintsarovska, who competed in the Blitz event in the junior girls’ group and rightfully took first place. Overall, as we have noted, the Dutch national team does not chase quantity, and therefore the general trend in its performance remains consistent year after year. The players prove themselves in the groups we have selected. There were 17 participants in these significant groups and 6 medals, with an efficiency rating of 35.3%. A consistent result.

3.4.Poland National Team: The number of high-caliber players on this team has increased significantly in recent times. We note that Heorhi Vydzerka, who began working with Polish draughts players, has made a significant contribution to the team’s overall medal count. The Polish national team frequently invites renowned draughts players to provide expert coaching assistance in preparing its athletes. It is worth noting that Yevgeny Vatutin recently worked there. Prior to that, Edward Buzhinsky provided his recommendations and published books. The number of medals won (11 in total) allowed the team to take fourth place on our effectiveness list. With an identical effectiveness rate of 30%, the Polish national team used far fewer players than the Latvian national team: 37 versus 50.

We’ll cover the results of the Latvian national team, as well as those of the other Baltic teams, in our next post.

To be continued