Evgeny Sveshnikov? Is the guy we get the Sveshnikov variation in the Sicilian?

What's fairer about Buchholz ? It rewards people for having the luck to have opponents who then go on to perform well.

some of the local players need a haircut a shave a warm bath and a new garderobe

I encourge everyone to take a look at Game 19 (Vescovi vs Krylov) in the games applet, a fantastic Kings Indian where Black attacked on the king side and White on the queen side. Whites king was under heavy attack and escaped to queen side, White sacrificed a queen but advanced two connected pawns to the seventh rank, four pawns were promoted to queen, twice during the game there were four queens on the board with both kings exposed, a very exciting game albeit full of mistakes due to time trouble!

Arne, I wondered if you knew the game Karpov-Miles as you were seven years old at the time (noone with a FIDE or KNSB rating can keep his age secret :) ) but you may have seen it later on.

Regarding Chernyshov as a [future] world class player: Anish Giri (2588) had a TPR of 2773 at Corus B, Chernyshov (2556) had a TPR of 2726. But here the similarities end: Chernyshov was born in 1967 (my age ...) and his rating has fluctuated between 2500 and 2600 for the last ten years - one excellent tournament doesn't change the overall picture, at least not yet.

I may be the only one here, but I'm interested in the strongest Open in the world, the Aeroflot. "This year's tournament is led by two players rated over 2700, both from France: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Etienne Bacrot. There's also a strong American contingent, including Kamsky, Alexander Shabalov, Jaan Ehlvest and other notable players like Alexander Motylev and Arkadij Naiditsch."

@buri Yes, that's him.

"The 9th Aeroflot Open takes place 8th February - 19th February 2010. This is the strongest open of the year. Players include: Bacrot, Bu Xiangzhi, Cheparinov, Motylev, Khalifman, Niaditsch, Nepomniatchi, Sargissian, Sasikiran, Smirin, Timofeev, Vachier-Lagrave, Van Wely and Zvjaginsev."

The tiebreak system used wasn't very good - rewarding the player with the lowest performance rating. The Buchholz system would have been much fairer.

Not necessarily - if you play a tougher field, you have to play better to achieve the same score.

I love that picture of Sveshnikov.

Is it possible to write something about the winner? He's unknown to me.

And of course both Vescovi and Krylov are very strong GMs. The material imbalances during this game were simply fascinating, both GMs should receive a brilliance prize for their efforts. Chess is alive and well in the 21st century.

INCREDIBLE! I have never heard of Chernyshov until now. It just shows the wealth of strong players the old ruskis have....and that a journeyman player there would be a board 2 or 3 for any western country.....Well played Mr. Tash!

And also look how Chernyshov played against Motylev... is this provocative play really possible against the world sub-top? Wow!

Provocative? I don't like that notion a bit, in this context. It's merely interesting inventive chess. Maybe the only way to win against stronger players.
After "just" drawing against Tartakower, Capablanca told him "Nevertheless I think your play lacks solidity". Tartakower answered:
"You know, THAT is my saving grace!"
Dogma have the precise weakness of being dogma: Ready to be put down!

@Arne: Something even more provocative was successful (once) against the very world top:
Karpov-Miles, Skara 1980, 0-1 (B00 "Uncommon King Pawn" or "St. George Defense")
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1068157
with detailed annotations by Tony Miles and Ray Keene

I know, Thomas, but of course Miles was himself a world class player. This can hardly be said of Chernyshov, though perhaps after this tournament we should reconsider this.

Kudos to Chernyshov of course, but Motylev's Na1 is certainly more "provocative" than any of his opponent's moves.

Chernyshov is a surprise winner and congratulations to him. But he could have easily lost that game against Motylev. In that case the final standings would most likely have been a lot more unremarkable. So overall, not that much out of the ordinary has really happened I think.

Thomas, I think there is no self-respecting chess player alive, even if he's only of Giri's age, who doesn't know the first move of Karpov-Miles, Skara 1980. Karpov-Miles, Skara 1980: the very words are like a bell.

Six players is very sad. Linares used to be by far the biggest tourney in the world. Corus was a distant second. Check out this list of all time great performances. Corus didn't even make the list.

1
Anatoly Karpov
11/13 (85%)
2729 2899 Linares, 1994

2
Garry Kasparov
12/14 (86%)
2692 2881 Tilburg, 1989

3
Emanuel Lasker
18/22 (82%)
2667 2878 London, 1899

4
Garry Kasparov
10.5/14 (75%)
2758 2877 Linares, 1999

5
Mikhail Tal
20/28 (71%)
2716 2869 Bled/Zagreb/Belgrade (Cand.), 1959

6
Alexander Alekhine
13/14 (93%)
2626 2865 San Remo, 1930

7
Garry Kasparov
10/13 (77%)
2737 2863 Linares, 1993

8
Alexander Alekhine
19.5/24 (81%)
2644 2859 Bled, 1931

9
Garry Kasparov
11.5/15 (77%)
2715 2856 Belfort (World Cup), 1988

10
Garry Kasparov
10/13 (77%)
2728 2855 Linares, 1992

11
Emanuel Lasker
11.5/16 (72%)
2738 2853 St. Petersburg, 1914

12
Garry Kasparov
9/12 (75%)
2744 2851 Amsterdam (Optiebeurs), 1988

13
Garry Kasparov
9.5/11 (86%)
2682 2850 Belgrade (Investbank), 1989

Bobby Fischer
18.5/23 (80%)
2643 2850 Palma de Mallorca (Interzonal), 1970

Mikhail Botvinnik
14/20 (70%)
2729 2850 The Hague/Moscow (WCh), 1948

Magnus Carlsen
8/10 (80%)
2733 2850 Nanjing, 2009

17
Siegbert Tarrasch
29/39 (74%)
2650 2846 Vienna, 1898

18
Garry Kasparov
8.5/11 (77%)
2733 2845 Linares, 1997

19
Johannes Zukertort
22.5/29 (78%)
2641 2844 London, 1883

20
Garry Kasparov
11/14 (79%)
2691 2840 Niksic, 1983

21
Vassily Ivanchuk
9.5/13 (73%)
2732 2837 Linares, 1991

:-) Another man of faith.