Tomashevsky wins Russian Higher League
16 September 2009, 10.12 CET | Last modified: 11:46 | By Peter Doggers | Filed under: Reports | Tags:
Evgeny Tomashevsky won the Higher League of the Russian Championship, a super-strong, 11-round Swiss, with a score of 8/11. He qualified for the Russian Championship, which will be held later this year in Moscow, together with GMs Vitiugov, Riazantsev, Khismatullin and Timofeev.
The Higher League of the 62nd Russian Championship took place September 2-13 in Ulan Ude, the capital of the Republic of Buryatia. The city is located about 100 km south-east of Lake Baikal on the Uda River at its confluence with the Selenga.
The name Ulan-Ude was bestowed upon the city in 1934 and means “red Uda” or “red gate” in Buryat, reflecting the communist ideology of the Soviet Union to which it belonged.
Ulan-Ude Troitsk Cathedral
Ulan Ude is located on the main line (Trans-Siberian line) of the Trans-Siberian Railway between Irkutsk and Chita at the junction of the Trans-Mongolian line (the Trans-Mongolian Railway). Besides, there is a large and highly unusual statue of the head of Lenin in the central square, the largest in the world.
Ulan-Ude train station on the Trans-Siberian railway
The largest head of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin ever built is in Ulan-Ude
Photos: Wikipedia
The tournament was an 11-round Swiss in which a total of 57 players participated. The rate of play was 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves followed by 15 minutes to finish, with a 30-second increment. The prize fund was 2,500,000 rubles (€ 55,439 / US$ 81,262).
Evgeny Tomashevsky took the first prize of 500,000 rubles (€ 11,087 / US$ 16,252.50) and so he repeated his success earlier this year, when he won the gold medal at the European Championship in Budva, Montenegro. As always, the Higher League functioned as a qualifier for the super final of the Russian Championship, which will be held in Moscow in December. Besides Tomashevsky, the other qualifiers were Nikita Vitiugov, Alexander Riazantsev, Denis Khismatullin and Artyom Timofeev. (Update: According to tournament regulations, Buchholz was the first tiebreaker. Creating a table in Chessbase gives me: Timofeev 43.25, Landa 41.25, Lastin and Zvjaginsev 38.75, Sjugirov 37.50.)
All games by Tomashevsky
Game viewer by ChessTempo
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Hi Peter,
Do you know why/if Timofeev qualified? The standings are on rating, was this really the decider for the 5th place (though he probably has best BH, SB and PS as well, just not TPR or most wins), or did they play tiebreaks? I was kinda hoping Sjugirov would qualify..
cheers, Jochem
According to tournament regulations, Buchholz was the first tiebreaker. Creating a table in Chessbase gives me: Timofeev 43.25, Landa 41.25, Lastin and Zvjaginsev 38.75, Sjugirov 37.50.
thanks!
Keep an eye on GM Sanan Sjugirov (born in 1993 I think)… His impressive score in such a strong tournament is by far the most relevant result of the Higher League this year…
Sjugirov might well be the next world champion instead of Carlsen, Aronian, Karjakin & Co… We’ll see…
Peter,
A most spectacular and enternaining game is Khismatullin x Bocharov (round 8 or 9, I think).
)
It deserves replaying! (of course lots of others too, but that one fills a chess lover’s heart
Do anyone know who are the other players on the final, besides these 5?
In fact it’s Bocharov x Khismatullin, from round 9.
(And “Does anyone knows…”)
“Sjugirov might well be the next world champion instead of Carlsen, Aronian, Karjakin & Co… We’ll see…”
unlikely but that would be one hell of a prediction if your right
Sjugirov already impressed at the European championship. He was seeded 98th, but finished 16th (7.5/9, TPR 2746) – beating >2600 GMs Cheparinov, Nikolic, Van Wely, Rodshtein and Aleksandrov (but also back then losing against the eventual winner Tomashevsky). At this occasion, he qualified for the World Cup. So if things go REALLY well for him he could already end up challenging the winner of Anand-Topalov
Of course this is even more unlikely … .