The "Nutcracker" tournament 2020 took place in the Moscow Central Chess Club, divided into one part of standard chess (rated twice) and one in rapid chess. Four "kings of chess" met four "princes", the young players. Alexei Shirov, Boris Gelfand, Evgeny Tomashevsky and Evgeny Najer vs. Andrey Esipenko, Semyon Lomasov, Alexey Sarana and Daniil Yuffa.
After the kings were in the lead in the first half of standard chess (9:7), the young stars were able to fight back in the second half. The victim of the veterans was Najer, who lost two of his games. In the third round, Andrey Esipenko (3 out of 4 in the standard round with a performance of 2822) defeated him in a currently relevant variation of the English opening.
Evgeny Tomashevsky stood out among the veterans, who also scored 3 out of 4
With an equal score of 16:16, the games continued to the last part of the tournament, being rapid chess. After a balanced first round, the veterans ultimately had the upper hand. Boris Gelfand made sure of this with 6½/8 in rapid chess. The Israeli World Championship finalist from 2012 highlighted the performance explosion of "Prince" Andrey Esipenko. His gameplay had continuously developed since his first participation in the nutcracker tournament, and he is almost playing like a "2700" now.
Translation from German: Arne Kaehler
