17 June 2017

The Indian Assault on Voronezh

Grandmaster Dmitry Kryakvin transmitting from the besieged city using special means of communication

It needs no mentioning that the chess calendar is so tight that it gives you almost no time to “digest” one event before another one kicks off already. An unprecedented failure of the world champion (oh, if only Sergey had had his say in this matter!) in Stavanger, and Vladimir Borisovich is so young and full of energy. An outstanding Levon Aronian has brilliantly reconquered the summit once again. Barely did I have time to catch up with the updated players’ standings on 2700chess.com (with live FIDE ratings), when the world team championship is about to start in Khanty-Mansiysk.

Certain teams’ lineups look strange indeed. It has been only recently in Minsk that Andrei Esipenko defeated all Turkish team’s leading players, whereas Dima Tsoi would upset the major part of the Norway national team (without Magnus, of course). However, since our starlets’ victims have qualified into the World Championship by fair means, let it be so. As for us, we wish good luck to Andrey Filatov and Sergey Rublevsky’s teams.

Meantime, the RCF website does not shy away from covering events from the domestic calendar. Thus, Voronezh has given start to "Russian Biel", "Russian Pardubice", "Russian Capelle-la-Grande" - in short, the Alekhine Memorial! One of the most popular open tournaments in Russia has once again gathered an impressive lineup, with both experienced players and numerous young talents having come to have their strength tested here in one of the numerous motherlands of Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine.

What is so attractive about the Voronezh event? I remember Stanislav Yanushevsky’s words about each of the Russian stages having its own distinctive features. It looks like Alexander Raetsky’s stage has many of them. The Alekhine Memorial comes along with many types of chess for you to enjoy: the Fisher’s, Rapid, Classical and Blitz. In addition, the organizers take care of assisting guests with getting accommodated at very reasonable prices. Voronezh gives you an opportunity to make international norms should you decide to join the main tournament. Yet another positive feature has been voiced by grandmaster Nikita Maiorov, "I travel a lot through the countries of the former USSR to play chess, and the trend is such that many places’ breakfast food is no longer tasty. It seems like a lot to choose from, but your never see anything that appeals to your taste. It is unappetizing, made of second-rate products. Meanwhile, Voronezh comes up with amazing breakfasts with pineapples and other delights!" 

Nikita is golden, he lives in Belarus that knows neither import substitution concepts and nor restrictions on buying something like Swiss cheese. Thus, the grandmaster‘s words can be trusted! By the way, the breakfast inspiration helps Maiorov be one of the competition leaders. And a hard competition at that. The thing is, Voronezh has been invaded by...the Indian army. There was a time in history when the Tatar-Mongols assaulted Russia from two directions. One army was led by Batu himself, and the second by one of his commanders Subutai. They joined forces to seize Kozelsk, which sustained the enemy's onslaught for as long as 7 weeks.

The Hindu players have also approached from two directions. One group warmed up for this event at the Nezhmetdinov Memorial in Kazan, the other one defeated the squads of young Russian warriors at the Belaya Ladya in Dagomys. Then both groups pooled together in Voronezh, while coming to their assistance to fill in the role of Batu was a mighty beyond years heir to the Indian chess throne with an incredibly hard-to-pronounce surname. It is Praggnanandhaa, if I spell it correctly. Later on the Indian army intends to invade Europe, following the precepts of their Eastern counterparts of the past. 

By now, the final results of the Rapid and Fisher Chess competitions have been summed up. The classical section is still underway and will be described in the followup reports. Now I invite you to look through the pictures by Elena Ponomareva. This is nothing but Bollywood (i.e. the Indian dream factory), there is no doubt about that now!