The third round of the Lithuanian Chess League was held in Vilnius over the weekend during which two tournaments were played and the strongest Lithuanian clubs emerged.

After two rounds (five parties) it seemed there would be no surprises this time. The MRU team dominated the championship winning all five matches for 10 points. Gigant Chess of Panevėžys was a close second with 8 points while Makabi and Margiris from Kaunas (a Lithuanian Chess League champion many times over) each lagged behind by a point at 7. In the sixth round MRU lost 1.5:3.5 to Makabi and Gigant Chess and Margiris each gained a point (2.5:2.5).

Before that fateful round MRU was still out in front with 10 points, but Makabi and Gigant Chess were already hard on their heels, both teams holding 9 points. In the last round the chess players weren’t entirely focused on their own games and kept track of the competition as the situation dramatically changed and made mental calculations about the points needed to end with a higher standing.

Makabi was the first to win in their match against Bokštas from Plungė, Lithuania, 3.5:1.5, insuring Makabi at least third place. That meant Gigant Chess in their match against the Rokiškis Chess Club needed to win with a score of at least 4:1 to overcome Makabi. Gigant didn’t manage it and won 3.5:1.5.

The battle for the gold came down to a battle between the two universities. After almost five hours of intense play 75-year-old international master Kęstutis Kaunas dramatically defeated Andrius Brazdžionis for Kaunas Technical University to defeat MRU 3:2. That result handed victory to the Makabi team and Gigant Chess remained in second place while MRU took third with 10 points. The Kaunas Technical team also got 10 points but took fourth place.

International grand masters Aloyzas Kveinys and Darius Zagorskis and international masters Valerijus Kazakovskis and Donatas Vaznonis along with Šarūnas Germanavičius, Romanas Buršteinas, Mindaugas Genutis, Timuras Baliasnas, Borisas Rosicanas and Danielis Dubrovinas played for the winning Makabi team. Congratulations!

In the Lithuanian Women’s Chess League Margiris from Kaunas won with 12 points. Two teams took 11 points each but Bokštas from Plungė took second place because of better showings over the MRU-ROSK Consulting team who came in third.

The Margiris team included international female grand master Ilzė Berzine, Marija Šibajeva, Saulė Gailiūnaitė and Guoda Perminaitė.

Champions and near-champions in both the Lithuanian Chess League and the Lithuanian Women’s Chess League have the right to represent Lithuania at the European chess clubs championship to be held this fall in Turkey.