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IV
International Georgy Agzamov MemorialThe IV International chess tournament in the memory of Georgy Agzamov, the first grandmaster of Central Asia, was held in Tashkent from 23rd to 31st of March. A great chess player, promoter, coach and organizer, Georgy Agzamov tragically died at the age of only 32 in the Crimean resort of Sevastopol – while on a mountain outing, he stumbled and fell down the gorge. The annual Georgy Agzamov memorials are the tribute the Uzbek Chess Federation and the entire country pay to the memory of this wonderful person.
Thanks to the excellent organization by the Chess Federation of Uzbekistan, the professional work of arbiters and technical staff, and sponsorship of MTS-Uzbekistan mobile operator, the tournament turned into a great chess festival with a total of 114 players and a record number of foreign participants. These included world-renowned players, as well as young talents from twelve countries, including Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Indonesia, USA, the Netherlands, Israel, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. This nine-round Swiss is by far the top tournament in the region, which this year attracted such names as Alexei Dreev, Sergey Tiviakov, Gadir Guseinov, Vitaly Tseshkovsky, and many other great chess personalities.
The tournament was held in this beautiful building – the so-called Central House of Officers. Sorry for the limited view – this is about as much as the widest angle of my lens could get from the few meters I could afford. Behind me was a big street with heavy traffic and full of cars parked on the sides. But I will compensate with a verbal explanation. These houses exist in virtually all major cities of post-Soviet countries, and used to serve as a kind of entertainment clubs for Soviet Army officers and their offsprings, offering them such facilities as a billiards hall, cinema, concert hall, dance club, etc. With the collapse of the USSR, they retained the name, but went open for general public, and offer their facilities for rent.
The main playing hall
The total prize fund amounted to US $20,000, with the first prize of $5,000. In addition, special prizes were established for women, juniors under 20, juniors under 16, and veterans.
In the overall ranking, four players tied for first with seven points, with
the Russian grandmaster
and well-known chess commentator Maxim Turov clinching the first prize on Buchholz
tie-breaks.
| Rnk | Player | Pts | Nat | Rtng | Perf | WWe | BH | BH2 |
| 1 | GM Turov, Maxim | 7.0 | RUS | 2609 | 2702 | +1.16 | 54.0 | 42.5 |
| 2-3 | GM Zhigalko, Sergei | 7.0 | BLR | 2648 | 2681 | +0.49 | 53.5 | 42.5 |
| 2-3 | GM Jumabayev, Rinat | 7.0 | KAZ | 2542 | 2690 | +1.61 | 53.5 | 42.5 |
| 4 | GM Golod, Vitali | 7.0 | ISR | 2590 | 2670 | +1.08 | 49.5 | 39.0 |
| 5 | GM Tseshkovsky, Vitaly | 6.5 | RUS | 2549 | 2618 | +1.09 | 54.5 | 43.0 |
| 6 | GM Dreev, Alexey | 6.5 | RUS | 2653 | 2661 | +0.28 | 52.5 | 42.0 |
| 7 | GM Guseinov, Gadir | 6.5 | AZE | 2609 | 2616 | +0.29 | 52.0 | 40.5 |
| 8 | GM Ismagambetov, Anuar | 6.5 | KAZ | 2508 | 2581 | +1.10 | 51.5 | 41.0 |
| 9 | GM Kotsur, Pavel | 6.5 | KAZ | 2565 | 2581 | +0.48 | 51.5 | 40.0 |
| 10 | GM Filippov, Anton | 6.5 | UZB | 2598 | 2536 | -0.39 | 51.0 | 40.0 |
| 11 | GM Yurtaev, Leonid | 6.5 | KGZ | 2469 | 2562 | +1.29 | 49.5 | 39.5 |
| 12 | GM Mchedlishvili, Mikheil | 6.5 | GEO | 2634 | 2567 | -0.50 | 49.5 | 39.0 |
| 13 | GM Dzhumaev, Marat | 6.5 | UZB | 2525 | 2466 | -0.36 | 45.5 | 34.5 |
| 14 | Faizulaev, Akmal | 6.5 | UZB | 2303 | 2415 | +1.54 | 40.5 | 33.0 |
| 15 | IM Kvon, Andrey | 6.5 | UZB | 2455 | 2372 | -0.64 | 38.5 | 29.5 |
The tournament cross table, round-by round results and a selection of top games are available at the website of the Uzbek Chess Federation. Above are the top scorers – the full table is available here.
We always ask our contributors to send us sharp, well-framed pictures, with proper white balance, but also with captions. Too many images are published on chess sites without any indication of who the people might be. The picture galleries are often simple uploads from the SD cards – numerous software applications for organizing and editing digital photos allow you to do this with a few mouse clicks. Of course the readers are left to work out what the pictures depict all by themselves: some guy, another guy at the chessboard, a chick, two gals playing against each other, an older dude, another guy – hang on, isn't that Tiviakov?
So we beseech people to include short descriptions of the people they portray. Some comply, some do so in exemplary fashion. A very good example is our old friend Jamshid Begmatov, who is a keen and competent photographer, but always remembers to include descriptions and little stories in his reports. This time he sent us a large package with plenty of new faces and portraits. We bring it to you in two parts.
The tournament winner Maxim Turov of Russia
In the category of veterans, Vyacheslav Agzamov, the elder
brother of Georgy Agzamov became the winner with 4.5 points
The other brother of Valery Agzamov, a keen photographer
The Under-16 section was won by the talented young player from Bukhara
Jahongir Vakhidov with six points, the son of GM Tahir Vahidov
In the women's section, the winner with 5.5 points was WFM Dinara
Sadvakasova from Kazakhstan – no relation to GM Darmen Sadvakasov
The World Under-20 Vice-champion GM Sergey Zhigalko from Belarus...
...and Kazakhstani grandmaster Rinat Jumabaev shared 2-3 with absolutely
identical
tie-breaks in the order of priority: Buchholz, Median Buchholz, and the number
of wins.
GM Vitaly Golod from Israel took fourth with the lowest tie-break among
the top scorers.
OK, so much for the official part. Now let’s take a photo tour of the tournament and personalities within and around it, and look at one game of special interest that I picked up from a great many fighting games.
Sergey Tiviakov, Holland, vs Vitaly Golod, Israel: 0-1
This is the round seven game I'm referring to. Why special? Because this was
a clash of generations: the youngest (20) and the oldest (66) grandmasters of
the tournament Sergey Zhigalko and the Russian chess legend Vitaly Tseshkovsky.
The former won in a style, with a devastating kingside attack.
Zhigalko,S (2648) - Tseshkovsky,V (2549) [B06]
4th G. Agzamov Mem Tashkent UZB (7), 29.03.2010
1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Be3 a6 5.Qd2 b5 6.a4 b4 7.Nce2 a5 8.Ng3
c6 9.Nf3 h5 10.Bd3 Bg4 11.Ng5 Nh6 12.h3 Bc8 13.c3 bxc3 14.bxc3 d5 15.e5 h4 16.Ne2
Nf5 17.Bf4 Na6 18.0-0 Nc7 19.Rab1 f6 20.Nf3 Ne6 21.Qc2 0-0 22.Bxf5 gxf5 23.Nxh4
Ba6 24.Ng6 Rf7 25.Rfe1 c5 26.dxc5 Nxc5 27.Rbd1 e6 28.Ng3 Rc8
29.Nxf5 fxe5 30.Nxg7 exf4 31.Nxe6 Qf6 32.Nxc5 Rxc5 33.Re8+ Kg7 34.Ne5 Rfc7 35.Re1 d4 36.Qb3 Bc4 37.Nxc4 Rxc4 38.cxd4 Qxd4 1-0.
One of two top rated players of the tournament – Alexei Dreev, Elo
2653;
who finished shared 5-15, with 6.5 points, place six on tie-breaks
Here, I would like to continue my discussion of common mistakes in the transliteration of Cyrillic-based names to English. In English, you normally read the double "e" as a prolonged sound [i:] like in "greens". So, Rajeev would be a correct spelling for the Indian name, but Dreev is a very common misspelling, because the proper pronunciation of this name is dreyev with a very clear sound "y" between the two "e"s. The mistake is a result of direct transliteration from the Russian spelling Дреев which you indeed read as dreyev. Same goes for Kazhgaleev, Bareev, Timofeev, Gareev and all other -eev's.
The other top-rated player, many times Dutch Champion hailing from Krasnodar,
Russia: Sergei Tiviakov, Elo 2653. He was quite disappointed with his 5.5 points
and 2501 performance.
Arbiters Irina and Julia pulled aside for a shot by your photographer
Julia under her second hat: photographer
The oldest participant of the tournament: Erkin Karimov, Elo 2035
And perhaps the youngest. Well, shortest for sure. He would
barely see the board if he sat actually on the chair.
This lady brought her little daughter all the way from Kazakhstan
Sometimes the person's back tells you more than the face. This young player
must be disappointed with Wednesday night's grand football show Manchester United
vs Bayern Munich.
Tim Catur Mahasiswa Gunadarma – Gunadarma University Students'
Chess Team is what you read on the top Indonesian GM Susanto Megaranto's back...
...and his face in deep thought.
Five points with a 2299 performance is not what he expected from this tournament. But things happen. Susanto can surely blame his low score on his bad luck: he bought a T-shirt at a local bazaar; incidentally, the T-shirt had 13 printed on the back. After this purchase, he scored half a point in the next three games. I wonder if he will ever wear that shirt again.
Top Indonesian female player, WGM Irene Sukandar Kharisma, Elo 2316
The Indonesian team Captain Mr. (or Pak) Bunawan
When I saw him, I immediately knew where he was from. I still remembered some smattering of Bahasa Indonesia from my trip to the country a few years ago, so I thought I'd surprise him and said: Selamat siyang, apa kabar? (Good afternoon, how are you?) He was totally shocked, and we were friends in no time.
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About the authorJamshid Begmatov works as a consultant for the European Commission’s office in Tashkent. His hobbies include chess and photography. Jamshid has been writing reports and articles for ChessBase since 2003. To read, replay and analyse the PGN games we adivse you to download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light. This program also gives you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com. |
