The JR Chess Report (April 11): Russian Team Championships Conclude

[Jack Rabbit]

Tomsk, Spartak Vidnoe and Polytechnik win Russian Team Championships



Teams representing Tomsk, the Spartak Chess Club in Vodnoe and the Polytechik Institute in Nizhny Tagil have won their respective league competitions at the Russian Team Championships in Dagomys, a resort center about 20 miles inland from Sochi on the eastern shores of the Black Sea.

Premiere League

The team from Tomsk returned to form in The Premiere League, consisting of the top-rated teams in Russia, a year after a disappointing ninth-place finish out of twelve.

This year, with only eight tems competing in the Premiere League, Tomsk scored 11 match points out of a possible 14 to win by two full points over 64 Moscow, defending champions Ural Sverdlovsk and Economist-1 Saratov.

Alexander Morozevich left the team after last year's dechacle, putting Dmitry Jakovenko on the top board for Tomsk. Tomsk only overwhelmed one opponent, the Chigorin Chess Club of St. Petersburg in the second round and losing to 64 Moscow in Round 5. Except for a first round draw with Sverdlovsk, Tomsk won every other match by a +1 score. The team's leading scorers were Vladislav Tkachiev, who now lives and plays for France, and Tajikistan's Farrukh Amonatov, both of whom scored +2 out of six games.

Women's League

The Spartak Chess Club from the Moscow suburb of Vidnoe won the Women's League largely on the backs of the red-hot Tatiana Kosintseva, who scored five wins and two draws in seven rounds, and Katya Lahno, who won 4 and lost one in seven rounds.

It was a disappointing tournament for former women's champion Antoaneta Stefanova, who scored only 2½ points out of six for Spartak in contrast to the 11 points out of 14 contributed to the team's 18 board points by Tanya and Katya.

AVS Krasnoturynsk, with former women's champion Xu Yuhua on the top board, tied for first in terms of match points, but couldn't match Spartak's 18 board points and had to settle for second place. Krasnoturynsk's leading scorer was Anna Muzychuk with 4 points out of six.

Higher League

Polytechnik, the team representing the Nizhny Tagil Technological Institute, won the nine-round Higher League with 14 match points, a full point ahead of Economist-2 Saratov and Yurga.

The team was carried on board three by grandmaster Dmitry Kryakvin, who played in all nine rounds, scoring 5 wins, one loss and two draws.



Foxwoods Open Begins in Connecticut



The Foxwoods Resort and Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut, is hosting the annual Foxwoods Open, one of the premiere events on the American chess calendar, this weekend.

The event, whish began Wednesday with a single round, is played over five days with two rounds per day Thursday through Sunday.

Reigning US champion Yury Shulman was leading after Friday night's fifth round with a perfect score.


Hungarian tournament cancelled after one round, leaving 12 players stranded


ChessVibes

The second Gideon Barcza Memorial Tournament, scheduled to be played from April 6-17 in Budapest, was cancelled after only one round when the organizer Gabor Pali failed to pay either the Ramada Hotel, where the event was taking place, or the participating players.

Most information about the incident, as well as a personal account of how the participants were inconvenienced by the fiasco, is in an open letter written by Dutch IM Robert Ris upon his return to Amsterdam.

According to a statement by Lithuanian GM Eduardas Rozentalis, Mr. Pali promised to pay the players' expenses several times, but never followed through.

Israeli GM Evgeny Postny, while expressing anger at Mr. Pali and his "bullshit," also expresses astonishment at Pali's actions: "He paid nothing, didn’t get any money from the sponsor, and didn’t ran out of the city. He is going nowhere, just says that he will pay at that date, that hour, that sum to that person, and all lies of course."


Calendar


FIDE Grand Prix, Nalchik 14-29 April.

Dubai Open 25 April-5 May.

MTel Masters, Sofia 9-19 May.

Asian Championships, Subic Freeprot (The Philippines) 12-23 May.

US Chess Championship, St. Louis 18-29 May.

Chicago Open 22-25 May.

Aerosvit International Tournament, Foros (Ukraine) 9-20 June.

World Open, Philadelphia 29 June-5 July.

San Sebastian International Tournament 6-16 July. Former world champion Karpov is among the participants.

Canadian Open, Edmonton 11-19 July.

Czech Open, Pardubice 16 July-2 August.

Biel Chess Festival 18-31 July.

FIDE Grand Prix, Yerevan. 8-24 August.