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December 12, 2006
2006 Russian Superfinal
This year's event isn't quite as super without Kramnik, Morozevich, and Grischuk participating. This year's Russian Championship Superfinal is mostly a who's-not-who of young players who finally pushed aside the veterans in this year's championship qualifier. Four-time Russian champ Peter Svidler is in Moscow as the top seed and last year's winner Rublevsky is also playing. But the leader after eight of eleven rounds is Dmitry Jakovenko, who is on +3 despite a loss to the surprise of the event, 16-year-old Ildar Khairullin. He is in the three-way tie for second with Svidler and Alexseev.
There have been more than a few excellent games played so far as well as a few absurd GM draws. That two teens in their first Russian championship would play an 11-mover is tragic. Svidler's pawn poach against Khismatullin gets bonus humor points. That's a seriously well-travelled knight!
There have been plenty of Sicilians but it's not doing well even though overall black has won more games than white! (9 white wins, 12 for black, 27 draws.) Anyone think of a category 15 or higher with more wins for black? Even the famous "black death" Linares 99 that saw Kasparov score five black wins ended with ten wins for white and ten for black. Meanwhile, Linares 2002 had 14 white wins and just one for black. Dortmund 2001 was a 50-50 split. Ah, the Fujitsu-Siemens Giants Rapid event in 2000 had 6 wins for white and 10 for black, but rapid always has more potential for randomness.
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Meanwhile, the Putin regime is again after Kasparov and raiding his office!
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=a6Pt4A.USaNU&refer=europe
After Litvinenko and the Russian journalist killed last month, I would strongly suggest that Garry takes measures for his safety...
Posted by: GMPatzer at December 12, 2006 17:56Is this the worst Russian Championship? Not many top players there.
Posted by: freitag at December 12, 2006 18:29Svidler's not been very convincing recently . . . I guess he's too distracted by the Ashes!
[
Note for American readers. The Ashes are a cricket competition. Cricket is a sport played seriously by around 20 nations in the world - so only 19 more than the ones in which you excel :D
]
Ok, enough of that crazy paranoid anti-Putin Kasparov-heroizing. Much more important off-topic news is that Kramnik is getting married to his Marie-Laure Germon on December 30 or 31. Congratulations to both!
http://www.chessninja.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=9;t=001259;p=1
Ok, and for the so far quite fine Russian Superfinal, also note young Nepomnyaschij with a couple of very nice victories. On the wrong end of a great game by Svidler though.
Posted by: acirce at December 12, 2006 19:54Candidates 1959?
In this event Keres had an extraordinary record with Black - 12 out of 14 (10 wins, 4 draws)!! With White, he only got 6 out of 14 - all 6 games he lost in this event were with White! With Black, he beat Tal twice and Fischer twice.
Would this be a record in a major event for the difference in rating performance with Black over that with White?
Apologies. Slight mistake in my previous post. Keres got 6.5 out of 14 with White. Total 18.5 out of 28.
Apologies. Slight mistake in my previous post. Keres got 6.5 out of 14 with White. Total 18.5 out of 28.
Check out a nice photo tribute to Bronstein.
http://www.chesspro.ru/_events/2006/bronstein.html
The bittersweet Russian text is nice too - Bronstein reminisces about his wartime visit to Tbilisi and his friendship with Archil Ebralidze who later became the first chess teacher of Tigran Petrosian.
Posted by: dz at December 13, 2006 00:32Well even the weekend Russian Championships is still stronger than the strongest US Championships.
Some silly 1800 that doesn't resign in absolutely lost positions doesn't get to insult chess in Russia.
Only in America!
Too bad Sasha Baron Cohen won't do a spoof on chess players.
Posted by: anon at December 13, 2006 07:06I guess that is the reason USA won the bronze medal whereas Russia didn't even get a medal.
Posted by: dirtbag at December 13, 2006 08:35U mean the non US, US team!
Posted by: thewi at December 13, 2006 09:00You mena the non-US, US team!
Posted by: IJ at December 13, 2006 09:01Tom Chivers,
Cricket is a wanker sport played by former british colonies.
And that is about the extent of it and the main reason why nobody knows nor cares about Ashes.
Posted by: Mark at December 13, 2006 09:22Glad I don't play it then Mark.
Btw, if it's so obscure, how do you know about it?
(Ah. Must be the wanker part.)
Posted by: Tom Chivers at December 13, 2006 11:16Mark:
I know it's hard to admit, but your "Land of the Free and Home of the Brave" is also a "former British colony."
Posted by: morning at December 13, 2006 11:46USA! USA! USA!
--quoted from Stephen Colbert
Only part of the country was an english colony the rest of it we stole from the indians.
Posted by: kpower at December 13, 2006 14:15Interesting. If you knew anything about the natives of North America (particularly the ones in the USA) you would know that they had no concept of land as property, and thus to them nothing to steal from.
Posted by: parsnips at December 13, 2006 15:08Come on Parsnips, if you do not recognise land as property, and someone comes along and enacts a system of rights through which you lose your customary use of the land, then let's face it - something was stolen from you.
Posted by: gg at December 13, 2006 15:28May Vladimir and Marie be very happy together!
Posted by: Charley at December 13, 2006 15:47It's funny, how some people just don't get it. If they see a tournament (I am talking about Russian superfinal) with a lot unknown (to them!) players, they call it "Worst Russian championship". Believe it or not, there were cases in chess history when unknown (or little known) players actually were pretty good even though very few people heard about them. Those young guys ARE VERY STRONG. In no time they will be in world chess elite. And if only some of the posters here would be able to understand it by looking at their games... Until then, trust my GM judgment:)
Posted by: amgm at December 13, 2006 16:54amgm=Moro?
Posted by: r at December 13, 2006 17:15When is Topalov going to marry Danailov?
Posted by: zero@ego.com at December 13, 2006 17:17zero,
Is suiogamy legal in Bulgaria?
Posted by: greg koster at December 13, 2006 19:19they can get to London or whatever and marry there, stupid human laws cannot stop their eternal love.
Posted by: PlayJunior at December 14, 2006 00:37AMGM = arithmetic mean- geometric mean inequality.
The fact is that maybe these guys would be rated higher if they had a chance to play outside of Russia. Their ratings are a bit deceptive. Look at Svidler. He is doing well, he may even win. But, he is not dominating as he would in say, a tournament with Dutch players of the same ELO. Jakovenko must be 2700+.
