10 May 2015

Sergei Rublevsky: Somehow we always start slowly

Eteri Kublashvili interviews the head coach of the Russian women's national team.


– Sergei, please accept my congratulations on the silver medals of the World Championship! What can you say about the course of the tournament? Which match turned out to be the most difficult?
– Like all the World Team Championships the tournament was a very difficult one, but we felt support of the fans and did our best. I want to thank the President of the Russian Chess Federation Andrey Filatov, who supported us greatly all the time he was in Chengdu.

As I said, it turned out that we missed the gold because of a single wrong move in the first round... The history, however, does not tolerate the subjunctive mood; I must confess that the Georgian players have performed just faultlessly.

Probably the most difficult match happened to be against Kazakhstan, where we really were supposed to lose. In other matches, even in those ended in draws, we never stood the risk of losing, it can even be said that we underperformed somewhat. However, against Kazakhstan we were definitely not doing well, but by some miracle managed to escape with a draw.

Quite unexpectedly, we succeeded in defeating the Chinese women in a relatively easy manner.

Sergei Rublevsky with Alexandra Kosteniuk and Valentina Gunina

 Recently you always seem to have had easy wins against them...
 This time they played without Hou Yifan, but we did not put Valya forward for the game either and still outplayed them 3-1.

 Given the fact that the team started off with two draws in a row, are you in general satisfied with the second place, or did you angle for the gold only?
 When we made two draws at the start, I thought it to be no big deal. After defeating the Chinese team it seemed to me that everything was fine and we were still after contesting the first place. I was sure that the other teams would lose their points too. It has never happened before that one team managed to win all the matches in a row in a single round-robin tournament, as did the team of Georgia in Chengdu.

Somehow we always seem to be slow starters and it takes us long to come into shape at every tournament, but then we finally manage to gain momentum. At previous World and European championships we also failed to immediately start off playing to the top of our possibilities.


 How was the national team preparing for the Championship in China?
 As usual, we had a training session at the Krugloye Lake, which lasted a little shorter than usual – just seven days. At the training camp we were busy with sports and chess activities and we had counseling interviews  with a psychologist.

Unfortunately, Valya was not present at the session and it may have to do with the two losses she suffered at the start. But all the others were there; even Natasha arrived upon completion of the Women's World Championship final in Sochi.

 Recalling the previous experience of the training session in Istanbul, she did not play football with you this time, did she?
 No, she didn’t. Other people were enjoying football as not everyone can play it.

 The physician accompanied the team as it went to China. Did she have a lot of work to do?
 She was not deprived of work as some team members experienced stomach problems. Even the Americans applied to her for assistance. One must get accustomed to the Chinese food, because it differs much from ours. But towards the end of the tournament, we even started to like the Chinese food, although at first we ran into some problems.

The Head coach is treating his team to some delicious stuff shortly prior to the beginning of the last round

 Did you like the way the tournament was organized?
 Yes, everything was fine. However, in the beginning I went through a little culture shock.

 It is not your first time in China, is it?
 Yeah, but I still cannot get accustomed to the fact that they have it all a different way: it is by no means bad, just different. Still, the organization was superb, the guests did not feel any pressure, everything was perfect.

 What was the daily schedule that the chess players were supposed to adhere to during the tournament?
 Everyone would even come down to breakfast... The breakfast would be followed up by the preparation for the game, lunch, the game itself, and then, again, by a little bit of training and a mandatory evening stroll.

 It seems that the Russian chess players are the most team-oriented of all teams...
 Yes, we have long been a very closely knit team. Even if nothing came off the way we wanted, as was the case of the World Championship in Astana, where we took the third place only, the team members still remained very friendly towards each other. 

 Who is in the team’s reserve?
 Alina Kashlinskaya attended the preliminary training session. Katya Lagno will soon return to active play.

 Are there among the younger chess players the likely candidates for the teams’s reserve, and then for the team’s main boards?
 So far, unfortunately, it is not yet clear who of the young chess players can be regarded as potential candidates for the national team.

 What are the upcoming tournaments awaiting the Russian team?
 Perhaps in July a training match in China will take place, but so far it is under negotiation. I wish it were held together with the match between our and the Chinese junior teams, which will enable us to evaluate someone from the youth players.

And the next major team tournament is the European Championship that is scheduled to take place in Reykjavik in November.


The Russian Team together with the President of the Russian Chess Federation Andrey Filatov

Pictures by Eteri Kublashvili and Lew Yunpena