Russia’s team league is by far the strongest in the world, with 2600-rated grandmasters on even the weakest squads. One would expect Moscow and St Petersburg to dominate but in fact the best teams are often from Siberia.
A few years ago the championship favourites often included Tomsk, a city whose previous claims to renown were in the revolutionary ditty When Serge and I Were Young, where Tomsk and Omsk rhymed with bombsk, and later in Tom Lehrer’s Lobachevsky.
In this month’s 2015 Russian league the winners had a grander team name, Siberia-Novosibirsk but the essential ingredients were as before. Serious finance to field a squad with an average 2726 rating was provided by oil oligarchs while the players’ links to Siberia were tenuous, with GMs from Armenia, China and Ukraine among the octet. Even the top board, the former world champion Vlad Kramnik, now resides in Paris.
St Petersburg and Moscow included more genuine residents and were the other tournament favourites but something strange happened at the end. St Petersburg, headed by the seven-times Russian champion Peter Svidler and averaging a highly respectable 2711 rating, settled for third by a limp all-drawn final match against the second-placed finishers, University of Belorechensk.
Where is that? A Wikipedia search reveals the facts: Belorechensk is a humdrum town of some 50,000 inhabitants, around 150 miles north of Sochi, venue of the Carlsen v Anand world title match, which also hosted the team event.
One might think that “University” indicates a group of ambitious students eager to upset the established names but four of the Belorechensk team are into their 40s and are veteran chess pros. And they are no flash in the pan either, having finished ninth in 2013 and fourth in 2014. Still, how a modest provincial community could field a 2692-rated squad which would expect to defeat all the top teams in Western Europe bar Germany’s elite champions, Baden-Baden, is a mystery.
Kramnik’s win over Svidler showed, not for the first time, the former champion’s subtle mastery of flank play with the white pieces. The concept of moving his b pawn twice in the opening looks odd, but it worked well, giving White a strong pawn centre. Svidler was still in the game, but missed chances to stay level by 18...Bc3 19 Rb1 Nb4 then by 21...Bf5 22 Qf2 Bd3. After that Kramnik’s tactical shot 26 Ne6! mated or won the queen.
Vlad Kramnik v Peter Svidler
1 Nf3 Nf6 2 g3 d5 3 Bg2 g6 4 b3 Bg7 5 Bb2 c5 6 c4 d4 7 b4 Nfd7 8 O-O Nc6 9 bxc5 O-O 10 d3 Nxc5 11 Nbd2 Rb8 12 Ba3 Qa5 13 Qc1 Na4 14 Nb3 Qc7 15 Qc2 Bd7 16 Rae1 Rfd8 17 e3 dxe3 18 fxe3 h6? 19 d4 Bf5 20 e4 Bg4 21 e5 Nb6? 22 Nh4 Nxd4 23 Qf2 Qxc4 24 Re4 Be6 25 Nxd4 Bd5 26 Ne6! Bxe6 27 Rxc4 Nxc4 28 Bxe7 Rd2 29 Qxa7 Bxe5 30 Nf3 Bc7 1-0
3390 1 Qxd6! wins. If Bxd6 2 fxg7 mate. If Rxd6 2 fxg7+ Bxg7 3 Rf8 mate. If Qe8 2 Qxf8+! Qxf8 3 fxg7+ Qxg7 4 Rxd8+ and mates.
