Croatian Junior Team Championship
The team junior championship of Croatia was played in the hotel “Girandella Resorts” in Rabac. This year, there were 13 teams who played the 8-round Swiss. It’s a change compared to previous years, but in my opinion it’s not a good one, because the Berger system is much fairer, where everyone plays with everyone.
Juniors ŠK Pula
Our juniors were 7 on the starting list, but they performed significantly weakened, because the former Croatian vice-champion and captain of this team, which was the team cadet champion of Croatia, Frano Rajković could not perform due to university obligations. His place in the team was taken by the talented cadet, still thirteen-year-old Lovro Mucić, for whom this was the first team competition in the team and a very valuable experience for the future.
In addition to Lovra, the team also featured Dino Lovrić, Niko Peruško, Ivo Pahljina (the three of them, along with Rajković, are part of the golden generation), as well as Enio Ibrišagić, who returned to chess after several years, and our junior Lara Nikolić. The main goal this year in these circumstances was survival in the league, which our team achieved by winning in the last round over the ŠK Brda team from Split, and took 8th place. Their coach Veselin Ilić was with the team at the league.
First three places
This year’s junior champions became the juniors of ŠK Sveta Nedelja from Sveta Nedelja, who more than deservedly won first place by winning all 8 matches. The second place was taken by the team of ŠK Sesvete-Agroproteinka from Sesvete, while the juniors of ŠK Junior from Rijeka were third.
Link for results and other details: Chess Results