Russian Team Championships: Ural and Finec win

Russian Team Championships 2008 in Sochi

The Russian Team Championships 2008 took place in Dagomys, Sochi, from April 1st-14th, 2008. A total of 91 grandmasters (and three IMs) participated as members of twelve different teams. 61 GMs were rated higher than 2600, 16 were 2700 or higher.

The event was won by the team from Ural Yekaterinburg, consisting of Teimour Radjabov, Alexei Shirov, Gata Kamsky, Alexander Grischuk, Vladimir Malakhov, Vladimir Akopian, Alexey Dreev, and Alexander Motylev. Note that the team had an average rating of over 2700 (in kursive with an exclam: an average rating of over 2700!), that five players were 2700 or higher, and that the lowest board player had a rating of 2644. Bozhe moi!

Final standings

The top winning teams and their average ratings were the following:

The big disappointment, of course, was Tomsk-400, one of the top teams with Alexander Morozevich, Sergey Karjakin, Dmitry Jakovenko, Loek van Wely, Artyom Timofeev, Andrei Kharlov, and Andrei Belozerov, all GMs and with an average playing strength of 2645.75. The team were apparently celebrating something, and appeared inebriated for round seven – behaviour that was punished with a fine of tens of dollars.

Picture gallery

By WGM Irina Sudakova, Anna Ushenina and Julia Gromova

Teammates Gata Kamsky and Teimour Radjabov playing for Ural Ekaterinburg

5.5/9: Alexei Shirov, performing at 2734 on board two for the winning Ural team

6.5/11 Sergey "You-talkin'-to-me?" Karjakin, with a 2726 performance on board two for Tomsk

1.0/5: Pavel Tregubov with a disappointing 2439 board four performance for Shatar Buryatia

4.5/9: Boris Gelfand playing at 2713 on board one for 64 Moscow

6.5/10: Bu Xiangzhi with a sterling 2770 performance on board two for Shatar Buryatia

The Southern Ural team with Alexander Riazantsev, Viktor Korchnoi, Evgeny Sveshnikov and Evgeny Romanov

Kamsky vs Korchnoi in the encounter Ural Ekaterinburg vs Southern Ural (Kamsky won)

7.5/11: Sergei Movsesian, playing at 2767 on board three for «FINEK» St. Peterburg

8.0/11: top scorer Wang Hao with a 2795 performance on board five for «64» Moscow

4.0/9: Pentala Harikrishna performed at 2596 on board four for «64» Moscow

Women's Team Championship

Alongside the men's championship, a women's championship also took place. This featured many of the world's top female players, including Antoaneta Stefanova, Natalia Zhukova, Viktorija Cmilyte, Zhao Xue, Xu Yuhua, Elisabeth Paehtz, Kateryna Lahno, and others.

As the final table shows, the winners were Finec St Petersburg, who fielded a team of Ekaterina Korbut, Viktorija Cmilyte, Natalia Zhukova, Julia Demina and Irina Turova. They finished a point clear of top-seeded Spartak Vidnoye (Zhao Xue, Xu Yuhua, Tatiana and Nadezhda Kosintseva and Elena Tairova), whom they defeated in the final round.

The winners Finec-1, with Ekaterina Korbut, Vladimir Bykov, Viktoria Cmilyte, Natalia Zhukova, Irina Turova, Julia Demina

Clicking cups: the winners of the men's and women's section, Alexander Grischuk and Natalia Zhukova, who happen to be married to each other

Economist of Saratov, led by Anna Ushenina, took third spot in tie-break from ABC of Krasnoturinsk, led by ex-world champion Antoaneta Stefanova. Rather in the fashion of the famous St. Petersburg 1914 tournament, the event consisted on a preliminary section of eight rounds, with the top teams then carrying their scores over into a four-round final group.

Anna Ushenina played board one for Economist Saratov

GM Kateryna Lahno of Ukraine playing for Sounth Ural

Viktorija Cmilyte playing for Finec-1 St Petersburg

Anna Muzychuk, originally from Ukraine, now living in Slovenia and playing for AVS

Natalia Pogonina playing for AVS

Sunset in Sochi – the end of the 2008 Russian Team Championships

Glamour shot of our photographer WGM Irina Sudakova

Links Official Russian Team Championship web site (in Russian) Russian Team Championships in Sochi (2007 report) Tomsk leads in the Russian Team Championships (2007 report) Russian Club Championships (2006 report) Click to download all available games in zipped PGN + Women's section (games not in good condition) You can use ChessBase Light to read, replay and analyse the PGN games. It also gives you immediate access to play and watch events on Playchess.com server.