Russian Team Championships: Ural and Finec win

by ChessBase
4/17/2008 – What a team: Alexander Grischuk won the men's section with Ural Yekaterinburg, and his wife Natalia Zhukova won the women's section with Finec St Petersburg. Ural fielded a team with an average rating of over 2700, with Teimour Radjabov, Alexei Shirov, Gata Kamsky, Grischuk and others. We bring you results, games, and a big picture gallery by Irina Sudakova et al.

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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

Rnk Team
Pts
B.-pts
 1 Ural Yekaterinburg
17
39.5
 2 Economist 1 Saratov
15
37.0
 3 TPS Saransk
14
37.0
 4 Finek St Petersburg
14
35.5
 5 Spasio-Swiss Moscow
12
34.5
 6 Shatar Buryatia
12
34.0
 7 64 Moscow
11
32.0
 8 SHSM Moscow
10
33.5
 9 Tomsk 400 Tomsk
10
31.0
10 Politekhnik Nizhny Tagil
9
31.0
11 South Ural Chelyabinsk
5
27.5
12 Economist 2 Saratov
3
23.5

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

1. Ural Ekaterinburg

2702.25

GM Radjabov, Teimour

2751

GM Shirov, Alexei

2755

GM Kamsky, Gata

2732

GM Grischuk, Alexander

2711

GM Malakhov, Vladimir

2689

GM Akopian, Vladimir

2700

GM Dreev, Alexey

2633

GM Motylev, Alexander

2644

2. Economist-1 Saratov

2653.5

GM Alekseev, Evgeny

2711

GM Tomashevsky, Evgeny

2646

GM Eljanov, Pavel

2692

GM Ni, Hua

2703

GM Roiz, Michael

2659

GM Moiseenko, Alexander

2650

GM Galkin, Alexander

2606

GM Khairullin, Ildar

2554

3. «TPS-Saransk»
2639.38
GM Ivanchuk, Vassily

2740

GM Sakaev, Konstantin

2649

GM Volokitin, Andrei

2684

GM Sutovsky, Emil

2630

GM Kobalia, Mikhail

2627

GM Volkov, Sergey

2633

GM Najer, Evgeniy

2627

GM Popov, Valerij

2525

4. «FINEK» St. Peterburg
2638.13
GM Svidler, Peter

2746

GM Zvjaginsev, Vadim

2674

GM Movsesian, Sergei

2695

GM Navara, David

2672

GM Vitiugov, Nikita

2617

GM Turov, Maxim

2583

GM Yemelin, Vasily

2583

GM Makarov, Marat

2535

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

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