Turkey hosted both the Women and Men European championships that year. My memories from the tournament are a little sad. This was the 3^rd in a row European Championship from which I didn’t qualify for the World Championship. My playing conditions were so-so, so I scored only 6.5 points out of 11. There were certain chances to qualify, but I didn’t catch them. Obviously, I haven’t “done my homework” before the event.

Ekaterina Atalik, winner of WIECC-2006

That year Ekaterina Atalik (Polovnikova) became the Women European Champion. Just before the tournament she has changed her chess federation from Russia to Turkey, and has brought her new home a large present by winning the event.Silver went to Tea Lanchava, bronze – to Lilit Mkrtchian. She started with just 2 out of 5 points, but then pulled herself together, scored 5.5 out of 6, and won the rigorous tie-breaks.

Notable GMs playing soccer

From the informal memories – bird flu kept us from eating chicken, that was hard! Also there was a very nice soccer match between the World team and Turkey team. As far as I remember, the Turkey team won – they were way better coordinated.

Here’s a tactical shot from one of my games at WIECC-2006:

Pogonina N. (2409) – Motoc A. (2342)

	1. Written by This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it on 03:27 27 èþëÿ 2009 ã.
	Hope this comment does not spoil the fun for later readers of the article:    Amazing move #33 Bd3xa6 !!!

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