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57th Russian Championship
Super Final
November 14th – December 1st 2004 |
The Super Final of the 57th Russian is being held in the Festive Hall of the
Hotel Rossija (“Rociya”), directly adjacent to the Red Square.
The prize sum is US $125,000, to be paid out in rouble equivalent. The winner
takes $50,000. The participants of this round robin tournament are Garry Kasparov,
Alexander Morozevich, Alexander Grischuk, Peter Svidler, Evgeny Bareev, Alexey
Dreev, Vitaly Tseshkovsky, Alexander Motylev, Vladimir Epishin, Artem Timofeev
and Alexey Korotylev. Original Vladimir Kramnik and Anatoly Karpov were included,
but both withdrew at the last moment.
Wrap-up of the first two rounds
By Misha Savinov
It is much easier to discuss the content of games played in the “Vasilyevsky”
than decisions of some players and organizers that influenced the starting
lineup. Their moves, considered step-by-step, seem more or less logical, but
the overall picture looks really weird. A letter in French received by Russian
organizers, knocked out both the recovering Kramnik and the preparing Khalifman.
The latter, however, declared that he is not disappointed and quickly found
another tournament for himself. In fact, so quickly that when the organizers
attempted to persuade him to substitute for fellow ex world champion Karpov
at short notice, Khalifman was already not available.

The giant Rossija Hotel, with a banner announcing the event
If Kramnik’s withdrawal was at least explained clearly (excusing his
French), the Karpov story sounds like a Cinderella tale. He suddenly recalled
that at midnight, November 14th, International Grandmaster Anatoly Karpov suddenly
transforms into an irreplaceable businessman, and there is no chance to see
his chess incarnation at the championship. For the second time in a row Karpov
played an unexpected move, jumping off another Kasparov containing tournament
(remember the Botvinnik Memorial?). I guess he is so tired of chess that he
simply used this novel approach to refuse all pending offers from organizers
all over the world. Any other ideas? If so, then he is inconsistent. In yesterday’s
interview Karpov stated that he wants to keep playing chess.

The Kremlin and St Basil's Cathedral, just a stone's throw away from the
venue
Seriously, “certain reliable sources” confirm that Karpov’s
obligations do indeed exist, and are serious enough to absorb his attention
entirely. Anatoly’s fault is that he, knowing about those business obligations,
nevertheless agreed to play in the tournament, with a touching hope that the
situation would resolve by itself.

Inside the hotel building
Anyway, an all-Russian variation of the Wijk-aan-Zee finally took off (even
with 11 participants instead of intended 14), and already in the Round One
we witnessed three decisive games and one 70-move draw. Only Dreev-Timofeev
lasted about 20 moves, but Timofeev introduced a strong novelty to annihilate
any initiative by White.

The view from the playing hall
Prior to the tournament we thought that there are three or four main favorites:
Kasparov, who is still number one on the FIDE list, like it or not; Svidler,
who showed the best performance in the Russian team at the Olympiad; Morozevich,
without a doubt, one of the chess heroes of 2004; and possibly, Grischuk –
well-prepared, talented, calm, but maybe not as consistent as other three.
And three of these four won their Round One games.

Always the center of the media's attention: Garry Kasparov
Kasparov had white against Bareev – quite easy opponent for Garry, according
to the statistics. Evgeny went into the sharp line of Caro-Kann. Kings castled
opposite, and the opponents reached a position that was considered very bad
for Black some 30 years ago, but turned out playable nowadays. The thing is
that Black counter-strikes in the center, trying to exchange pieces, and White’s
initiative evaporates – or, in case of poor execution of the plan, Black
gets mated.

Let the games begin – Kasparov vs Dreev in round one
What happened in the game is that Kasparov appeared in inferior position by
move 23, but Bareev did not find the better continuation (Bxd6 instead of f6?),
fixing the advantage, and Garry regained the initiative. However, it wasn’t
clear whether White could win or not. According to the recent findings of GM
Jakovenko, Black was able to draw a critical pawn ending, which was previously
thought to transform into Q+P vs. Q with some winning chances for White. So,
the objective evaluation of that sharp endgame is a draw. Bareev’s decisive
mistake was 38...Ba3 instead of 38...Kg6! After that, Kasparov did not let
victory slip away, although a “pure technique” endgame still contained
some tricks.

First blood: Tseshkovsky vs Svidler in round one
Svidler is supposedly quite tired after the match in Brissago and the Olympiad,
but his overall class does not allow him to perform below certain (high) level.
In Round One he played in very professional style: strong opening, early equality,
building the advantage upon opponent’s mistakes, achieving a decisive
edge. Tseshkovsky resisted bravely in lost position, constantly posing problems
for Black, but the St. Petersburg grandmaster proceeded to win the game.

The two Alexanders: Motylev vs Grischuk
Grischuk had black vs. his friend Motylev. Ultra-sharp English attack of the
Sicilian occurred, which is could be regarded as Grischuk’s pet opening,
especially when he plays White. After the thematic exchange sacrifice on c3
Black fully equalized, and in complicated middlegame without queens White misplayed
badly and lost his knight. Not an excuse but a partial reason is that Motylev
was in bad time trouble. The time increment does not help to eliminate Zeitnot
blunders in complex positions.

Alexander Grischuk showing his game on the demo board
Curiously, Grischuk and Motylev were declared two most elegant participants
of that Moscow FIDE knockout championship. This time all grandmasters come
to the tournament in suits and ties – the organizers introduced a dress-code.
So far, nobody seems to object, and photographers are obviously happy. Chess
is a sport for intellectuals, therefore a ban on training suits is just and
fair.

Epishin vs Morozevich in round one

Alexander Morozevich |
Morozevich was close to a win as Black against Epishin. The Muscovite got
the initiative early after a harmless (or rather harmful to White) opening
by his opponent. But then Epishin started to defend like Petrosian. According
to Alexander’s second, IM Vladimir Barsky, it is possible that black
had a winning advantage, but there was no such thing as missed winning move.
Epishin was finally rewarded with half a point, and pale-looking Morozevich
left the playing hall deeply disappointed. And the next day brought him even
more serious trouble.
Dreev already had +2 against Moro before their Round Two encounter, however,
one could think the score is distorted as Alexey had White is an overwhelming
majority of their games. Well, maybe Dreev is really a nemesis of Morozevich.
On Tuesday the rating favorite had the privilege to open the game, but the
result was a crushing defeat. Those who expect Morozevich only to lose by pressing
too hard and overstepping the usual degree of risk in some Caro-Kann or French,
saw another possibility. Dreev went for the Sicilian, delayed castling to develop
initiative against the white king, and started to deliver blow after blow to
a disconcerted opponent. It was all Dreev for the entire game. Poor Alexander
was simply swept off the board. I am sure he will recover over the course of
the tournament, as Morozevich is one who usually wins a lot and loses more
than other top grandmasters, but November 16th was definitely not his day.

Dreev demonstrating his win against Morozevich in round two
The Round One leaders slowed down their pace, but all did so for good reasons.
Svidler had the best reason of all – a rest day. Garry Kasparov’s
reason is that he is still number one in the rating list, and his opponent
Korotylev, who had white, played extremely cautiously and solidly. Kasparov’s
Queen’s Indian proved ineffective in creating winning chances for Black.
Maybe Garry should believe in taking risks again and to go for his old-time
favorite, Benoni or KID, against vastly less experienced opponents.

Alexey Korotylev vs Garry Kasparov in round two (photo Kohlmeyer)
Grischuk approached Epishin’s Hedgehog with great care and respect.
It is a common knowledge that in this structure Black has nothing to do until
White creates some imbalances. So Grischuk simply maneuvered, waiting for his
opponent to show impatience or ignorance to White’s various possible
attacking plans. However, Epishin did not lose his attentiveness until the
time control was reached, and this was enough to pass Grischuk’s test
with at least a B+. A draw was agreed on move 43.

Former world champion Vassily Smyslov and wife in the audience
Two days have passed, and the tournament already produced a number of valuable
games. We have three actual leaders, Kasparov, Grischuk, Dreev, and one potential
leader, Svidler. The organization of the super-championship is quite good,
as is the quality of Internet relay – the first day’s problems
were generally resolved by turning the webcam off, as it generated most of
the bandwidth problems.

Manning the press center: GM Dmitry Jakovenko and Oxsana Kosteniuk
The press-center is well organized, thanks to its chief Alexander Roshal and
supporting team consisting of Evgeny Atarov, Oxsana Kosteniuk and two titled
players: GM Dmitry Jakovenko and IM Maxim Notkin. It is marvelous to see Russia’s
top players drop by to share their impressions of their just-ended games.

Older sister Alexandra Kosteniuk, now a (male) GM
I found the only serious problem was that there are no regular spectators
here yet. The problem is that the tickets have not appeared yet, and chess
fans who try to get into the playing hall are being stopped by security (but
not in a Spanish way, I assure you).

Problems with the tickets – the spectators could not get in
However, the tournament director said that this problem would be fixed during
the week as well. We will keep you informed on future development of the situation
– as well as on chess content of the Russia’s 57th chess championship.
Pictures by Misha Savinov and Eugene Atarov