Morozevich demonstrates his win against Svidler
A little of the shine was taken off Peter Svidler’s victory at the Russian Championship Superfinal when he lost in the final round. The mercurial Alexander Morozevich later showed an audience how he used a rare opening line to beat Svidler and snatch clear second place in the tournament.
Morozevich and Grischuk demonstrate their wins
All games were decisive in round 4 of the Russian Championship Superfinal, and afterwards Alexander Morozevich and Alexander Grischuk demonstrated their wins for the local audience and those watching the video broadcast. Vladimir Barsky transcribed their comments for the official website, and I’ve translated them below.
Morozevich: “The Higher League wasn’t in my plans”
Alexander Morozevich’s victory in the Russian Higher League was a rare treat for his legion of fans, and all the more remarkable as in an interview afterwards he revealed it was a last-minute decision to take part. The enigmatic grandmaster talked about whether this marked a return to chess.
Morozevich’s commentary on a trademark win
Alexander Morozevich’s return to chess, and form, has been the highlight of the Higher League of the Russian Chess Championship. After Round 9 he provided commentary on his win over Sanan Sjugirov. Meanwhile, Artyom Timofeev kept up the pressure despite his opponent’s female fan club!
GM Peter Svidler answers your questions: Part II
Here at last! Part Two of Svidler’s “KC-Conference” saw Peter answer reader questions on an enormous range of topics, from the standard – e.g. why he chose the Grunfeld and how to improve at chess, to others you’ll struggle to find elsewhere – e.g. why he wears an earring and whether he has chess-related dreams.
“Chess punished the whole team” – Russian views on the Chess Olympiad
While the Russian women’s first team took gold with an almost flawless performance, their male counterparts found things a whole lot tougher. Vladimir Kramnik, Evgeny Bareev and Sergey Shipov were among those who assessed the silver-medal performance at the World Chess Olympiad.
Sergey Shipov previews the Olympiad
With the World Chess Olympiad set to start on Tuesday in Khanty Mansiysk, Grandmaster Sergey Shipov previewed the event at Crestbook, giving his verdict on the favourites, medal contenders and dark horses for both the men’s and women’s events.
Gashimov left out of Azerbaijan team for Olympiad
In an ugly turn of events, Azerbaijan, previously real contenders for a gold medal at the Olympiad, have chosen to leave out Vugar Gashimov, one of their star players. This follows a bitter conflict with the team management and a nationalistic campaign against the 2719-rated player.
Kramnik: “If Topalov becomes champion it will be a disaster for chess”
Kramnik gave a fascinating and controversial interview to Michael Khomich at Sports.ru after winning the Tal Memorial in Moscow.
Malicious rumours that Kramnik’s being helped by Topalov
I can’t resist translating part of the introduction to Sergey Shipov’s on-line commentary on the Morozevich-Kramnik game.
