Although it failed to make the first report, having been played in the fifth round already packed with noteworthy results, special mention must be made of the extraordinary game by Ian Nepomniachtchi against Sanan Sjugirov, who had already suffered a pummeling by Kramnik in round three. In round five, Sjugirov saw his name inscribed in the annals of all-time brilliancies... on the receiving end.
Ian Nepomniachtchi - Sanan Sjugirov
Ian Nepomniachtchi was over the moon, deservedly, and Tweeted:
Wait. Giant thanks to Dubov? Indeed, the spectacular sacrifice was actually home preparation by Daniil Dubov from a training camp from another time, that he shared with his teammate especially for his encounter with Sanan.
Daniil Dubov showed great team spirit and generosity in sharing his find, qualities he no doubt
picked up from his first major coach, Sergey Shipov. In any case, whether karma or just the way
the dice fell, Daniil had an exceptional event himself, scoring 4.5/6 and a 2781 performance. One
thing is clear: this mentality will make him the darling of teams seeking valuable additions.
As all top players will agree: preparation is always a hit-and-miss topic no matter how finely attuned one is to the opponent, but here it paid off beautifully and Nepomniachtchi was in awe of the concept and how well it played out. He was vocal in his gracious credit to the discoverer of the move, so hats off to both for their team work and sportsmanship.
Ian Nepomniachtchi was set on fire with this win, and scored full points against Dominguez
and Grischuk in the following two rounds. Scoring 5.0/7 his performance was 2870 Elo.
Vladimir Kramnik, by all appearances, feels great back in his home town. Tuapse, the name of the sea port where he was born, also extends south all the way to Sochi. Looking unusually at ease, highlighted by his regular walks into the hotel cafe, happy to swim in the saltwater pool, the ex-world champion came in the eighth round of the Premier League in a sports suit and a blue shirt with a sailboat on the chest.
Kramnik, who always lives up to the motto "dress like a grandmaster", showed how relaxed he
was feeling by coming in informal wear, which was the precursor to his second win over Sjugirov.
This has also translated into one of his best results in the last few years, with wins over Svidler and Sjugirov (twice!), and what should have been a memorable victory over Karjakin in round seven. Somehow, when all seemed done, he repeatedly missed the winning move, only to find Caissa, frustrated by this unexpected ineptness, play the most ironic of turns in his game.
Vladimir Kramnik - Sergey Karjakin
In spite of his superlative result, his team came in third, due to losses coinciding at the worst possible moments and uneven results by most of his team mates. The exception was Evgeny Tomashevsky, on board two/three, who played all eight rounds with a plus three score, no losses and a 2806 performance.
This also led to sweet revenge or Svidler and his team "The Bronze Horseman" that came in first and avenged their 2-4 loss in round four with an even more decisive 4.5-1.5 win in the last round over Kramnik's team "Siberia".
Peter Svidler bounced back from unexpected losses in rounds two and four, with two wins in
rounds six and seven against Karjakin and Sjugirov. It provided some damage control for his
rating, but more importantly salvaged his pride.
One of the key figures in the victory of the team "The Bronze Horseman" was hired gun
Bu Xiangzhi (above), who came to replace Li Chao, and showed what a force he was to
reckon with. Take a look at some of his handiwork below from round nine:
Bu Xiangzhi - Sergei Rublevsky
Black just played ...Bc4. Can you see White's reply? White to play and win.
Click for the solution
Although he only played three games against lower-rated players, he performed as expected,
and 21-year-old Vladimir Fedoseev scored 3.0/3
Maxim Matlakov (left) was another player who performed well with 4.0/6 and a 2745 performance.
In round nine, playing black, he played a powerful game against Anton Korobov (right).
Anton Korobov - Maxim Matlakov
Although Black won the game, he missed a chance to play an exceptional
combination here. Can you find it? Be warned, this is a tough combination,
albeit beautiful, so don't be frustrated if it eludes you. Black to play and win.
Evgeny Najer, the reigning European Champion, also showed his fighting spirit, by overcoming
a poor 1.0/3 start with a 2.5/3 finish. Look at his attractive finale against Timofeev in round eight.
Evgeny Najer - Artyom Timofeev
Najer did not need to be asked twice to join the party and unleashed
his final assault on the king. Try to work out the line until you reach a
clear evaluation. White to play and win.
Although Gata Kamsky drew all eight of his games, it bears noting that the lowest rated
of them all was 2674 and his performance (and thus average opponent rating) was 2717.
Untitled 22-year-old Alexander Predke, rated 2535 FIDE, had an exceptional event with a
plus one score over the eight rounds, and a 2679 performance.
In the lobby of the Grand Hotel "Pearl" - with a large gathering of local media - there was
also an interesting exhibition of rare stamps and envelopes called "Chess 2016".
The initiators of the exhibition - Igor Mamaladze, chairman of the Sochi Society of Philatelists,
and Sergey Demin, chairman of the Philatelic Society of Krasnodar.
A wide assortment of stamps with a chess theme were on display
In fact, an official tournament envelope was released for the occasion. A nice initiative!
Final standings
| Rk | SNo | Team | Gms | + | = | - | TB1 | TB2 |
| 1 | 2 | "The Bronze Horseman" (Saint-Petersburg) | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 29.5 |
| 2 | 5 | ШСМ «Legacy Square Capital» (г. Москва) | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 12 | 31.5 |
| 3 | 3 | "Siberia" (Novosibirsk) | 8 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 27.0 |
| 4 | 1 | "Zhiguli" (Samara-Oblast) | 8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 19.0 |
| 5 | 4 | "Rook" (Republic of Tatarstan) | 8 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 13.0 |
Annotation:
Tie Break1: Matchpoints (2 for wins, 1 for Draws, 0 for Losses)
Tie Break2: points (game-points)
In part two, the Higher League, Women's League and more will be covered.
LinksThe games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs. |
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