Athena (ChGK team)

The team emerged in 1992 as a result of combining the teams of Yevgeny Chechetkin and Andrey Grudsky (graduates of the 179th Physics and Mathematics School of Moscow) that existed since 1989 with the team of Maxim Potashev and Yuri Leontiev (graduates of the 1140th Physics and Mathematics School of Moscow). The name received from the Moscow club of intellectual games "Athena." The first team included Yu. Leontiev, D. Makarov, M. Potashev, V. Karlinsky, I. Lakhmanlos, V. Pankratov. The captain of the team until the beginning of 1993 was Yuri Leontiev, after his departure abroad - Vadim Karlinsky.

The first major achievement of the team was 1st place in the 1992 Moscow championship. In the spring of 1994, Vladimir Belkin was invited as captain. The team won the 1994 Moscow Brain Ring Championship.

At the beginning of the 1994/95 season, E. Orlova appeared on the team. The team won the IAC telephone championship , took 3rd place in the tournament in Velikiye Luki, 2nd place in the Cup of the Governor of St. Petersburg and won the White Nights tournament.

In the 1995/96 season, the team took 2nd place in Velikiye Luki, won the Moscow Open Championship, won the Moscow Grand Prix (organized at the initiative of Maxim Potashev), won the festival in Vladimir. From the beginning of 1996 she performed in an updated line-up (V. Belkin, M. Potashev, E. Orlova, E. Paltseva, Yu. Cherushev, V. Karlinsky).

1997 became even more successful: Athena won the Moscow Grand Prix, the tournament in Velikiye Luki, White Nights, and repeatedly became champions of the month in the television Brain Ring . The team almost in full force played in the winter television series “What? Where? When? ”, Achieved victory, and Maxim Potashev received the first“ Crystal Owl ”.

The following year, the team won five of the six Brain Ring television versions and won the absolute championship, once again won the Moscow Grand Prix, as well as the festival in Saransk, won prizes at the White Nights and Governor’s Cup festivals, Moscow championship in the brain ring.

In 1999, the team began by defending the title of absolute champion in the television “Brain Ring”, but did not achieve more victories: it took only second places in the Moscow Grand Prix, Governor’s Cup, “White Nights”, at festivals in Velikiye Luki and Saransk, at the Moscow Open.

At the beginning of the new season, Elena Paltseva left the team, but soon Dmitry Konovalenko and Elena Alexandrova joined the team. The team unsuccessfully performed in the Moscow Grand Prix, remaining below the line of prize winners, but won the Moscow championship in the brain ring. Speaking at full strength in an elite club, the team was defeated by viewers, although it won 5: 1. At the Saratov tournament, the team finished second.

In 2001, the team won the first Russian championship in history, but became only the second in the next Grand Prix of Moscow. The same result was again shown in Saratov. Vladimir Belkin left the team, and Maxim Potashev became the captain.

In 2002, despite serious problems with the roster after Elena Orlova also left, the St. Petersburg Governor’s Cup was won, 2nd place in the Moscow Grand Prix, 3rd place in the II Russian Championship. The team took 4th place at the I World Chess Club Championship in Baku with the participation of V. Stepanov.

In the 2002/03 season, which was the most successful in the team’s recent history, Athena regained 1st place in the Moscow Championship (Grand Prix), took 2nd place in the Russian Championship, and won the World Cup overall standings (including tournaments in Saransk and Odessa).

At the II World Championship in sports version “What? Where? When? ”In Baku (2003), Maxim Potashev’s team, performing under the name“ Genius ”, took 1st place. In the final game, she answered 23 of 30 questions, ahead of two more Moscow teams - Ksep and Golden Telecom . In addition to the captain, champions included Vladimir Stepanov , Elena Alexandrova, Yuri Cherushev, Anton Chernin, Vadim Karlinsky ^[1] .

In the future, the team again slightly decreased performance. At the next championship of Russia, the team divided 2-3 places, the Moscow championship finished in 3rd place, and at the world championship remained in 4th place.

In the 2004/2005 season, the team was only 4th in the Russian Championship and 2nd in the Moscow Championship.

At the IV World Championship in ChGK in Yaroslavl , Maxim Potashev’s team took 2nd place, losing to Andrei Kuzmin’s team ^[3] .

Before the start of the new season, Maxim Russo, who previously headed his team, joined the team. In 2006, the team won a landslide victory with a big advantage at the White Nights and took 2nd place in the championship of Moscow.

February 1, 2007 Dmitry Konovalenko died.

At the 6th World Chess Championship, in Svetlogorsk, Kaliningrad Region (2007), Athena won the 2nd prize by passing Anton Gubanov’s team ahead ^[4]

In November 2007, the team took second place in the Open Cup of Russia, and in March 2008 for the second time became the champion of Russia.

In September 2008, Athena, the World Championships in ChGK, which was again held in Svetlogorsk, performed unsuccessfully. The team approached the tournament in the rank of the leader of the world ranking, but according to the results of the qualifying round they only shared the 6th place, which allowed them to reach the final stage. On additional questions of the shootout, the team of Maxim Potashev nevertheless made his way to the final part of the rally, but there he remained without medals ^[5] .

In 2009, the team took part in the first festival “ Connoisseur . World Games of experts ”in the Israeli city ​​of Eilat . Being one of the main favorites, the team unsuccessfully played the fourth round of the main tournament, not answering 6 questions out of 15. In the final fifth round, the Maxim Potashev team managed to score all 15 points, but this was only enough for 2nd place (the national team of players under leadership of Ilya Bera). At the same time, Athena was successful in the tournament according to the Olympic rules. She reached the finals together with the team Nikita Mobile TeTe from Uzbekistan (captain - Rustam Said-Aminov), for which Alexander Druz acted as a legionnaire. In the final match, the rivals showed an equal score, but on additional questions the representatives of Russia were stronger ^[6] .

At the X Championship of Russia (2010), the team shared the 3-4 place together with the team of Andrei Kuzmin , gaining 67 points out of 90, and 2 points behind the winner - the team Anton Gubanov ^{[7] [8]} .

At the IX World Championship (2011) in Odessa , Athena repeated the success of 8 years ago, ahead of 50 teams from 15 countries. At the same time, the results of the first game day did not portend the victory of the Potashev team: it was only the fourth. However, on the second day of the game, the team showed the best result and achieved gold medals ^[2] .

• The history of the team on the official website of Maxim Potashev
• Team page on the IAC rating site