Greek Chess Team Ranks First in Europe and Fifth in the World

A Greek chess team has become the highest-ranked team in Europe and the fifth-highest-ranked team in the world in the university rankings.

The NTUA Le Roi Chess Team represented the National Technical University of Athens and Greece in the Kasparov Cup, widely considered to be the most important chess competition at the university level.

The Kasparov Cup competition was held between Friday, February 3, and Sunday, February 5. It was held virtually online.

Greek chess team triumph at Kasparov Cup

The NTUA Le Roi Chess Team performed strongly at the Kasparov Cup. Among the 548 students from around the world who competed, Dimitris Alexakis, Yannis Kalogeris, Konstantinos Tsarsitalides, and Anastasis Koukas played representing the Greek team.

Out of the 114 teams competing, the Greek team did well enough to rank first place in Europe and fifth place in the world.

Other success stories

The four competitors representing the National Technical University of Athens are not the only Greek chess players to have found success in recent years. Last year, in particular, marked a significant leap forward in Greece’s prestige and gravitas in the world of chess.

In November 2022, Marianta Lampou, a nine-year-old Greek girl was crowned European chess champion in the under 10s category in a tournament that was held in Antalya, Turkey.

“I felt very happy, [and] it was the first time I participated in a European championship,” Lampou told public television ERT after triumphing in the tournament.

“I liked chess very much from the first time I opened the chess board and I continued,” added Lampou who also trains with her younger brother.

In September of that same year, ten-year-old Greek chess champion Evangelia Siskou won bronze in the World Individual Championship in September.

Evangelia Siskou was among the 101 female chess players from thirty-six countries, who participated in the championship in the under-10 girls’ division. Her ranking leaped forward to the third-highest in the world after her victory.

Earlier in 2022, Greece proudly saw another win when 21-year-old Greek chess master Evgenios Ioannidis won the Masters event at “Serbia OPEN 2022” at the International Open Chess Championship, which was held in Novi Sad between June 28th to July 6th.

According to Chessdom magazine, the tournament attracted more than four hundred entries from forty-one countries with a sensational display by the young Greek who won the Masters event in a field of thirty-nine grandmasters and sixty-eight international masters. The Greek player scored an outstanding 8/9 points with a performance of 2858 and clinched the winning prize of 7,500 euros, grandmaster norm, and 40.8 rating points.

Furthermore, in August, Greece’s chess prodigy, Nikolas Theodorou, won the silver medal in the chess Olympiad that took place in India. Twenty-two-year-old Theodorou, who holds the title of Grand Master, came second in the Board 2 Open Section behind Nihal Sarin of India.