Russia, who had a shaky start, finished strongly and looked set for gold. In the penultimate round, they beat two-time Olympiad champions Armenia for a slender lead at the top on tiebreak from early pace-setters Azerbaijan going into the final round.

Both were tied on 13/16 match-points, but Russia led by just one individual game-point - so it was all going to be decided on whomever scored the biggest score in the final round. And indeed in a dramatic final round of twists and turns, Russia could only draw with Spain while Azerbaijan narrowly beat the Netherlands (due to Daniel Stellwagon somehow managing to lose a drawn rook ending to Vulgar Gashimov) to take first place outright on 15-points. Silver went to Russia on 14-points; the bronze going to Ukraine on tie-break after they finished on tied with Armenia on 13-points.

So, congratulations to the jubilant young Azeri gold medal-winning team (pictured above) of GM Teimour Radjabov, GM Vugar Gshimov, GM Gadir Guseinov, GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and GM Rauf Mamedov.