Working on an update of the Russian Team Championship, we came across a marvelous game. A game between two current Russian kings of chess: Ian Nepomniachtchi, the reigning European Champion, and Alexander Grischuk, the winner of the Amber Blindfold tournament. Besides, in this game both kings played an important role. Enjoy a thorough analysis.

The 17th Russian Team Championship takes place from April 1st to 10th in hotel complex "Dagomys", close to Sochim Russia. Play starts daily at 15:00 local time which is 13:00 CET (GMT/UTC +3) with a rest day on April 6th. The rate of play is 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 50 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 10 minutes to end the game with 30 seconds increment for each move.

The "Premier League" is a single round-robin consisting of ten teams, with no less than three of the nine teams have an average rating of 2700 or higher. The lineups:

1. Economist-SGSEU - 1 (2704) - Wang Yue, Eljanov, Tomashevsky, Alekseev, Ni Hua, Moiseenko, Roiz, Andreikin
2. SPb Chess Fed (2700) - Ivanchuk, Svidler, Vitiugov, Movsesian, Zvjaginsev, Efimenko, Sakaev, Yemelin
3. ShSM-64 (2700) - Gelfand, Karjakin, Wang Hao, Caruana, Grachev, Riazantsev, Najer, Savchenko
4. Yugra (2689) - Grischuk, Jakovenko, Malakhov, Rublevsky, Landa, Sjugirov, Pridorozhni, Kabanov
5. Tomsk-400 (2687) - Ponomariov, Motylev, Bologan, Kurnosov, Inarkiev, Khismatullin, Timofeev, Amonatov
6. Ural (2618) - Nepomniachtchi, Belov, Kobalia, Lysyj, Ponkratov, Deviatkin, Shariyazdanov, Rashkovsky
7. M.Chigorin Chess Club (2584) - Khairullin, Matlakov, Romanov, Popov, Ionov, Shimanov, Anisimov, Levin
8. Etude-Contact (2555) - Khenkin, Rakhmanov, Chadaev, Papin, Krylov, Gabrielian, Chernobay, Orlinkov
9. Economist-SGSEU - 2 (2548) - Kovchan, Evdokimov, Novikov, Dyachkov, Iljushin, Lushenkov, Shukh, Sharafiev
10. BelGU (2493) - Ivanov, Potkin, Gasanov, Panarin, Bryzgalin, Uzhva, Fomichenko, Khoroshilov

Photos © Eldar Mukhatemov, more here

After three rounds Yugra (Khanty-Masniysk) and the team of the St Petersburg Chess Federation lead with three victories; the latter has collected most board points so far.

Below is the game we mentioned in the lead of the article. A great fight.

Nepomniachtchi-Grischuk
Russian Team Ch (02) 2010

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official site
• All details
• Live games
• Games in PGN via TWIC