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Good start for Ural & Economist1

4 April 2008 2:34 PM | Last modified: 21:20

Karpov, Korchnoi, Svidler, Morozevich, Alekseev, Gelfand, Rublevsky, Bareev, Kamsky, Khalifman, Radjabov, Shirov, Grischuk, Mamedyarov, Ponomariov, Karjakin and many other players are together in Sochi, Russia. At the Russian Team Championship, two teams started with two victories: Ural from Ekaterinenburg and Economist1 from Saratov.

The Russian Team Championship is held 1 - 14 April in the microdistrict Dagomys in the city of Sochi, Russia - where the second Grand Prix will take place as well, in August.



It’s the stongest team competition ever held in Russia. Twelve teams play a round-robin in a period of two weeks. Besides the title, the teams fight for three spots at the next Europa Cup. Each team is allowed to use a maximum of three foreigners.

More than once I’ve described the Bundesliga as the strongest club competition in the world, I believe. But if I look at these teams, I’m not so sure anymore:

Results so far:

Round 1: 2 April 2008                   Round 2: 3 April 2008
SHSM          - 64              3-3     SHSM          - TPS             4-2
TPN-Saransk   - South Ural      4-2     South Ural    - FINEK          2½-3½
FINEK         - Shatar         2½-3½    Shatar        - Spacio          3-3
Spacio        - Ural            2-4     Ural          - Economist-2    4½-1½
Economist-2   - Economist-1     2-4     Economist-1   - Tomsk-400       4-2
Tomsk-400     - Polytechnic    2½-3½    64            - Polytechnic     3-3

Shirov and Motylev have won both their games; Kamsky drew both games with Black in his pet a6-Slav. Korchnoi lost in the first round against Sakaev; in the second he drew with Zvjaginsev. Karpov hasn’t played yet. Here’s a selection of interesting games from the first two rounds.

Links:

Written by peter | Filed under Coverstory, Club competition 

Comments

4 Responses to “Good start for Ural & Economist1”

  1. Coco Loco on 4 April 2008 5:26 PM

    Karpov and Korchnoi are playing on the same team!

  2. Martijn on 5 April 2008 3:02 AM

    And if, as the lineup of Tomsk suggests, Aexander Morozevich plays a simul on two desks, I think the other teams might just as well pack their suitcases and leave :-)

  3. eiae on 5 April 2008 6:47 PM

    Korchnoi below 2600, is that a first in like 60 years, I wonder?

  4. ~~~~ on 5 April 2008 8:32 PM

    Tomorrow I expect a fully annotated Volokitin-Movsesian on this site.

    Karjakin-Bu was fun too. I guess Bu is still angry that Karjakin took the title “youngest grandmaster in history” from him.

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