The Spanish team wins its first medal in history

Spain has won the bronze in the Rapid World Cup by Nations in Jerusalem after beating India (2-2, 2-2, and 3-1 in the lightning tiebreaker).

Although the tournament was devalued from the beginning due to the important absences, the Spaniards (Jaime Santos, David Antón, Alexéi Shírov, Danil Yuffa and Miguel Santos) also suffered from them (Vallejo and Iturrizaga) which did not prevent them from eliminating the very powerful Azerbaijan in the quarterfinals, squeeze China (winner of the gold against Uzbekistan) in the semifinal and keep their cool in an electrifying denouement.

Miguel Santos also takes the individual silver.

“Dos Santos go to Jerusalem and win the bronze,” joked team captain David Martínez, as the other Santos, Jaime, achieved a decisive victory on board one against Indian Vidit after Shirov's ties for 3rd and 4th and Miguel Santos facing Narayanan and Gupta, respectively.

Anton's game against one of the great Indian prodigies, Nihal Sarin, was still at stake, but without any problem for the Spaniard, who ended up winning.

There was fear of accusing the upset suffered on Thursday against China, when everything indicated that Spain was going to win the first match 3-1 but in a few minutes the real score became 2-2, and then a defeat (1- 3) in the 2nd set.

The president of the Spanish Chess Federation (FEDA), Javier Ochoa de Echagüen, acknowledges that "it could have been even better", but makes a very positive evaluation: "In team tournaments, and even more so if they are fast, there are always games that you are going to win and lose or vice versa.

We hoped to go to the quarterfinals because in the group stage we had weak South Africa, which made things easier.

But then eliminating Azerbaijan with their top team has a lot of merit.

And also the integrity that our players have shown today against the Indians, who are very tough”.

Certainly, knocking down the country that has become the new mecca of chess, even if several of its great stars were missing (Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Erigaisi, mainly) was a very demanding task.

But Miguel Santos turned the situation around by beating Sasikiran in the first match while Jaime Santos and Shírov made a draw with Vidit and Narayanan, respectively.

The victory was in sight because Antón was in a drawn position against Nihal Sarin, but the pressure of the clock got the better of him, and he lost.

For the second match, Spain replaced Shirov, still brilliant at 50, with Yuffa, and all four games ended in a draw, with Anton struggling a bit under pressure from the talented Nihal Sarin.

A few minutes before the tiebreaker (five minutes, plus three seconds per move), the tension behind the scenes could be cut with a knife.

The five Spanish players, as well as Ochoa and Martínez, paced like caged lions as mutual encouragement combined with final instructions.

But the four Spaniards who disputed the tiebreaker were able to contain that tension and transform it into serenity to subdue the Indians.

And so the country that has organized the most international tournaments every year since 1988 finally won its first team medal, with dos Santos in Jerusalem.

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