| The refusal of Kramnik and Karpov lowered the rating of the national championship super final From today, for two weeks, the attention of the chess world will be focused on Moscow. Here at the Rossiya Hotel the super final of the Russian Championship starts with the participation of the country's strongest chess players. The event itself is unique, comparable in importance to the match tournament for the title of absolute champion of the USSR in 1941 and the anniversary 50th and 55th USSR championships in 1983 and 1988. But it would have been even more unique in its original form, but over the last week its status was downgraded by the refusals of Vladimir Kramnik and Anatoly Karpov.
A little history. The 1941 match tournament was organized on the initiative of the then leader of Soviet chess, Mikhail Botvinnik, who had unsuccessfully played in the 1940 USSR Championship (5th-6th places) with the participation of six of the country's strongest grandmasters. The tournament ended with a convincing victory for Botvinnik, who continued to play in the USSR championships, as did subsequent Soviet world champions. This, with the participation of other outstanding chess players, created the image of the strongest in the world for national tournaments.
In the 80s, with the beginning of the confrontation between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov, the situation changed. With the advent of a new wave of grandmasters, veterans began to worry about maintaining their ranking, and world champions agreed to play only in anniversary championships. Moreover, they also influenced the formation of the composition. Thus, the 50th USSR Championship, with the active participation of Anatoly Karpov, included the strongest grandmasters of the older generation: former world champions Tigran Petrosyan and Mikhail Tal (who dropped out due to illness after the first round), as well as Efim Geller and Lev Polugaevsky, for whom this performance ended up last in the national championship. For a long time, Garry Kasparov, who refused literally before the start, was also thinking about participating - he was already on the champion's path in the fight for the world championship. As a result, the tournament started with 17 participants, which, to their displeasure, led to the prize fund being halved. According to the regulations in force at that time, with 18 participants, the main prize was 800 rubles. - considerable money for those times. Then Karpov won.
The 55th national championship, where a special prize fund was established, was attended by the 12th and 13th world champions Karpov and Kasparov, the fight between them for the world championship was in full swing. They shared first place. And yet, then the primary thing was not money, but the opportunity to participate in a prestigious tournament. Nowadays times are different. The market has its own laws, and to assemble a prestigious lineup you need a solid prize fund, and the currently announced $125 thousand is certainly one of those. The winner will get 50 thousand.
14 participants were supposed to play in the super final of the Russian championship. All the latest world champions who won their title in classical matches were personally included: Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik, but the latter refused to participate just a few days later, citing fatigue. To bring the number of participants to a multiple, the organizers had to refuse Alexander Khalifman. As it turned out, they were in a hurry, since Anatoly Karpov also abandoned the tournament yesterday. Who is offered to fill the 12th vacancy or the tournament will still have to be held according to a truncated scheme - this remained unknown at the time of signing the number.
The refuseniks dealt a blow to the level of the long-awaited championship, but even without them, a whole group of grandmasters had a rating exceeding 2700 points according to Professor Elo’s system. These are Alexander Morozevich (2758), Peter Svidler (2735), Evgeny Bareev (2715) and Alexander Grischuk (2704). The remaining participants were selected through the major league tournaments of the Russian Championship, held this summer in Tomsk (Alexander Motylev, Artem Timofeev, Alexey Korotylev) and in St. Petersburg (Alexey Dreev, Vitaly Tseshkovsky, Vladimir Epishin).
Thus, chess players of all generations who have different experiences in participating in domestic championships play in the tournament. Kasparov (1981, 1988) and Tseshkovsky (1978 and 1986) became USSR champions. Svidler won the Russian Championship four times (1994, 1995, 1997, 2003), and in between the champions were Morozevich (1998 plus in 2003 he shared 1st-2nd places, but lost to Svidler in additional indicators) and Motylev (2001). The most prominent representatives of the younger generation are three-time participant in the World Olympiads, 21-year-old Grischuk (his best performance at the national championship was sharing third place in 2003) and 19-year-old Timofeev. Oleg STETSKO |
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