04.05.2006 ALEXANDER KENTLER. CROSSROADS: STABILITY DISPLAYS THE SKILL

One can congratulate Russian chess because it seems to become as well-supported as Russian football, judging by stability of the team lineups. In fact, this aspect is extremely important.

We published the results of the Russian Club championships on the 30th of April.  Ural, TPS, Tomsk-400 and Termosteps became the leaders of the men's section and gained four qualifying spots to the European chess club championship. Let us compare the lineups of these teams with the ones of the previous year.

Ural (Grischuk, Shirov, Akopian, Dreev, Malakhov, Motylev, Sakaev and Aleksandrov) became the gold medal winner. Last year five members of the present champion also played for the same team (called  Max Ven then), which finished second. This year two new players (Shirov and Malakhov) joined the team. It was considered to be the main favorite of the tournament, and triumphed with 17 points, although the struggle was pretty tense.

TPS from Samara (Ivanchuk, Volokitin, Najer, Volkov, Popov, Korneev, Kiriakov and Ivanov) took the second place and yielded to the champion only by individual points. This team managed to keep almost all players of the previous year. Only Volokitin substituted Sutovsky, who went off to City Administration team, and Korneev was added to the list. 

The Russian and European champion of 2005, Tomsk-400 took only the bronze. This team kept all the players from the previous championship (Aronian, Morozevich, Jakovenko, Bologan, Tkachiev, Smirnov, Inarkiev), and Ian Nepomniachtchi from Bryansk became the only new team member, having substituted Belozerov, who was a single representative of Tomsk.

At last, Termosteps(Gelfand, Rublevsky, Khalifman, Bareev, Mamedyarov, Korotylev, Belov and Amonatov) took the fourth place. In spite of the last year’s failure (the 9th place), this team succeeded in keeping six players and was rewarded by the opportunity of playing in the European Club championship. Rustemov and Dolmatov left the team, but Rublevsky and Mamedyarov, who replaced them, definitely strengthened the club from Samara. 

Ladja from Kazan also kept six players who had participated the last year’s championship, but this time the team finished only fifth. Radjabov and Kasimjanov couldn’t compensate for the loss of two leaders – Svidler and Rublevsky. As a result, the bronze medal winner of 2005 remained beyond the European championship.

Other teams (including those promoted from the Higher league) also decided to save some traditions. Several teams decided to resolve their problems by inviting superstars. Now some of them are relegated to the second division.

Let me say a few words about the Saint Petersburg teams. It will be some kind of a link between the men’s and the women’s sections. The problem is that the last leadership of St. Petersburg Chess Federation gradually relegated Saint Petersburg Kings (a two-time champion of Russia) from the Premier league and from the Higher league. One can just be pleased by the fact that our city teams are present in the club championships due to the efforts of local enthusiasts.  Following the relegation of the FINEC men’s team, now there are two teams from St. Petersburg in the Higher league – Chigorin Club and FINEC.

FINEC is the only college of the city that supports chess, however, the inconsequence of this team really grieves. Guest stars Tiviakov, Movsesian and Brodsky were invited to be the leaders of the men's team. Nikita Vitiugov, who is the only student of this college in the team, played very rarely. What was the purpose of creating this team if its young players have no opportunity of playing regularly? The result is known – the team has been eliminated. Excellent women’s team of FINEC for the second time in a row takes only the third place. Strengthening of this already strong team every time provides medals that could be won even without inviting foreign players. At the same time, the second team of FINEC, which consists of St. Petersburg residents, is a wonderful training ground for young players. Vladimir Bykov, who is a manager of both teams, has excellent opportunities to manage the squad efficiently.  

Both teams of the Chigorin chess club consist of our city residents. And though the men’s team didn’t get to the Premier league, students of the chess school coupled with grandmasters working as trainers seems to be an ideal combination! The club concept is present and working. 

Now let’s look at the winners of the women’s section. The two-time champion AVS from Krasnoturinsk (Stefanova, T. Kosintseva, N. Kosintseva, Muzychuk and Kursova) made one substitution as compared with the previous year. Young Muzychuk replaced Zhukova. The silver medal winner – South Ural from Cheliabinsk (Kovalevskaya, Lahno, Mkrtchian, Kochetkova and Shumiakina) – didn’t make any substitutions! Finally, our FINEC (Turova, Demina, Korbut and Sudakova) came off third. This year the St. Petersburg team invited Cmilyte instead of Shadrina.

For a long period of time there had been no clubs teams in Russia. Thankfully, now they play every year, gathering a good share of world’s chess elite. Let me present impressive figures: the Russian Club championship accommodated 28 players from the world’s Top 50 (and 43 players from the Top 100)! Probably, someday there will be slots for native players in every team. The participation in the tournaments will depend on carrying out the all-the-year-round work in the regions, supporting junior chess teams, repairing tournament halls, etc. Well... It looks like I dream too much.

P.S. It turned out that five (!) qualifying spots to the European championship were given to the Premier league teams. Tomsk-400 has a personal invitation outside the country quota, as a winner of the last year’s competition. Luckily for us, the regulations in chess are different from those in football, recalling the Arsenal-Tottenham situation.