Ukrainian Chess Review: January 2001
January: some act flaky in Kiev - some do wonders in Donetsk

Anatoli Jaworski
8.2.2001

The first month of 2001 will surely become a chess history milestone. The debut of the millennium raised hopes of peace in the White and Black kingdom. The International Federation managed at last to set up contacts with the «eternal» opponents - Karpov and Kasparov. The former stopped his lawsuit with FIDE while the latter agreed - for the first time in many years - to play in a tournament under the aegis of the Federation.
As usual, Ukraine lags considerably in the wake of world processes. Somewhere voluntary settlements are signed while we just start to squabble and hassle. True, these events take place against the background of enormous chess activity. But, let's start from the very beginning...

The first move was made in the last day of the last century. The newspaper «Komanda» published an open letter of 58 chess players, including very respectable grandmasters. The red line of the letter was the forthcoming elections of the National Federation President. One may argue the time selected for such letter (end of December, the New Year's eve) while somebody may not like the intonation. However, the demands of «the Decembrists» as the cliche goes, «deserve consideration». Still, the addressee - the Federation functioneers - have chosen to respond otherwise. Instead of giving clear answers to straight questions they began to investigate and look for the initiators and the signatories. Moreover, reliable sources say that one of the grandmasters was severely reprimanded by the club sponsors. The other grandmaster has sensed a dangerous turn the events take and decided to act like an ostrich - he declared that he «heard something about the letter but is not quite in the know of its contents».

It is hard to tell whether the Decembrists succeeded or not. But, surely, some of them suffered from this boomerang. For instance, among those who signed the letter was Yuri Koziy, President of Kiev Chess Federation, who was elected a year ago. Being interested in the forthcoming elections to the Chess Federation of Ukraine, a greenhorn among chess politicians did not notice a riot in his dominion and was punished. On 4 February his colleagues handed him a black spot at the conference of Kiev Chess Federation. Now, the re-elections will have to follow. It is worthwhile mentioning that Yuri Koziy encountered the opposition from the very first day of his rule. Probably, he lowered the boom on somebody, some people just did not like him. The war went incessantly for a year. However hard he tried to win, still he suffered appreciable losses on several occasions. Let's take a fresh case when in the mid January Kiev Federation opened the championship of the capital (for the first time it was arranged according to knock-out system). Koziy's opponents inaugurated the other tournament at the same time and according to an all-play-all system. Good prizes were announced and, as a result, six rating favourites were lured away from the championship.

However, Ukrainian chess witnessed not only conflicts. The presidents were not the only ones to fight each other. The players played and on the eve of Christmas we enjoyed a success of our country team members. A Kievite Vladimir Baklan won a tournament in Ano Liosia (a suburb of Greek Athens), and a Lviv resident Oleg Romanishin did not leave any chances to his rivals in the Italian Reggio-Emilia.
Still, even these formidable successes defy at the success of Vassily Ivanchuk at the super tournament «Corus» in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. It seems that our No.1 GM has won so many times that it is shameful to appraise him for his third and fourth place. But we have to consider an exceptional complexity and principal importance of this competition. Vassily deserves cheers. Just look for yourselves. He found himself in the same «cage» with such «lions» as Garry Kasparov who had lost his chess crown to Vladimir Kramnik though he did not admit his superiority, Kramnik himself, the World Champion by Brain Games Version, and Vishi Anand, the FIDE Champion. Add here the aggressive Shirov, the ambitious Morozevich, the intractable Adams, the diligent Leko, the unpredictable Topalov plus the strong «tail» in the persons of Fedorov and four Dutchman... Now you understand what a leading bunch Ivanchuk had to withstand. He survived and reminded everybody that it is too early to write him off.

However, still the Donetsk Match between Ruslan Ponomariov, the strongest junior in the World, and Viktor Korchnoi, the strongest veteran, was the major chess event of January in Ukraine.
First, we are happy for Ruslan's sponsors - the company DANKO. It demonstrated a wonderful illustration of the rule: we can, if we wish. (Earlier we had a chance to observe only how the imported patrons coddle the other prodigies - Peter Leko, Etienne Bacrot...). In Donetsk everything was arranged at the highest level both for the chess players and for the spectators. True to say, it cost much. On the other hand, the contest received a good advertising and...
...second, Ruslan was given a very good lesson. It is just such tough battles that are required for our lad. All-against-all tournaments and team matches are good. However, Botvinnik told, at the time, something like that: a chess player's class is determined in the matches when both masterhood and psychology work equally and to full extent. I'll be bold to say that just the disbalance between these two components did not allow Ruslan to reach a success at the recent championship in New Delhi. Our lad was vividly stronger that a Vietnamese Dao but lost a two-round duel.

By the way, a lack of match experience was also felt in his duel with Korchnoi. Before the last eighth game, Ponomariov had «+1» and it was enough to end in a draw... However, the «iron vet», who seemed to be indefatigable, has demonstrated a wonderful example how a win can be achieved if it is required. As a result - 4:4.
Incidentally, with their active play the adversaries shamed many a headshaker who predicted that the match would turn into a light show, just for the spectators and nothing more. Why Korchnoi has «to blow up»? Maybe, they thought, Ponomariov has to hold the veteran in veneration? However, the very first game turned to be a marathon - the draw was agreed after 6 hours and 51 minutes of struggle at the 91st move. The next one still longer - 117 moves! Korchnoi celebrates the victory... In the course of the match the rivals have signed the forms quickly just once (in the fourth game there happened to be a repetition of the moves).
Now, DANKO plans to organize one more match. It is not excluded that Ponomariov will be examined this time by Anatoly Karpov who is Korchnoi's «eternal» adversary. As the saying goes, Ruslan will leap out of the frying-pan into the fire...
 
In conclusion, about the nearest top events. Absolutely, the greatest of them will take place on the 16 February when the delegates from all over Ukraine are going to elect the National Chess Federation Chairman. How their choice will influence the future of chess in Ukraine? We shall live and we shall see...

 
  Korchnoi-Ponomariov Match (main page)
  Korchnoi-Ponomariov Match (Russian language materials)
  Chess Rating Tournament «The Prize of Trudova Ukraina Party»
  Corus 2001
  Alushta Chess Tournaments: Calendar-2001 in Russian
 
Internet (Russian)
  Kiev Chess Federation
  Ukrainian national rating
  Vladimir Baklan tells about the tournament in Greece
 
Internet (English)
  FIDE
  Ukrainian Chess Federation
  article about the tournament in Greece (KasparovChess)
 
 
 
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