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Saratov Governor's Cup, Saratov/Russia Tourney format: round robin with 12 players over 11 rounds
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The Governor's Cup is currently underway in Saratov, Russia, and with the list of participants playing, one had all the reason in the world to exect it to be an exciting event. There are young players such as Michael Roiz, Evgeny Tomashevsky, and Dmitry Andreikin seeking to grow still, as well as veterans seeking to redeem themselves from a bad phase such as Peter Leko, and Pavel Eljanov, not to mention top ten Ruslan Ponomariov, who is the rating favorite. Finally, for extra fun (for the audience) there are Shirov and Morozevich whose take-no-prisoner reputations precede them. Rounding the list off are Evgeny Alekseev, Nikita Vitiugov, and Ni Hua.
Morozevich has been unstoppable this year, and the Governor's Cup is no exception
The first thing we must note, is the lack of a proper tournament page, or pictures, which is really deplorable and unworthy of the players. In today's age, it is frankly absurd. The second thing worth noting, and no fault to the organizers, is the incredibly high draw rate with 75% of the games ending in draws.
That said, before you conclude the report is about how incredibly dull the tourney is, it is not. One player has single-handedly made reporting the tournament mid-way a must: Alexander Morozevich. 2011 has been heavily marked by his return to chess, and a return to strike envy in almost all the elite, with one 2800+ performance after the other, even when he failed to win an event. This event is no exception.
After six rounds, he is leading the rest by 1.5 points with 5.0/6 and a near 3000 performance. In fact, had he not stumbled at the last minute in his game against Shirov in the sixth round (quite won) he would have 5.5/6. If the event has somehow slipped under your radar until now, be sure to follow the games live on Playchess, and of course Mighty Moro.
Here is a sample of the play he has displayed as he wins a lovely game against Pavel Eljanov:
LinksThe games will be 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 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs. |
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