Ukrainian Chess Review: February 2001
February: Linares blinded all and... disappointed

Anatoli Jaworski
7.3.2001

While a Linares tournament lasts, it seems that the chess life everywhere else subsides. The brand name and the magic of star names actually enchant and draw attention away from other events. That's why we leave the Linares for a desert and meanwhile...
 
The Professional Chess Association has announced its listing as of 1 March. It is known that PCA and FIDE differ considerably in their evaluation of ratings because of the peculiarities of calculations. However, the first three grandmasters excel the others so greatly that they nevertheless remain the first ones irrespective of the calculation method. Without any doubts, the leader of the list is Garry Kasparov (2791). He is followed by two world champions - Vladimir Kramnik (2785) and Vishy Anand (2764).
Now about our fellows. We are glad for Vassily Ivanchuk (2694) as he got the sixth place and Vladimir Tukmakov (2586) who occupied the 54th place rather unexpectedly. It looks like Vladimir Borisovich who is going to celebrate his 55th anniversary on 15 March has the time of his chess life anew.
The youthful Ruslan Ponomariov, (2631) and the 18th place, strengthened his position in the elite group. Interestingly, that the great Anatoly Karpov follows him closely behind. This year Karpov celebrates his jubilee like Tukmakov - on 23 May the Russian player will be 50!
 
Let us come back to Ukrainians. There are three more of them in the first hundred: the 34th is Alexander Onischuk (2604), the 82nd is Vladimir Baklan (2559) and the 98th - Igor Novikov (2553). All of them are experienced fighters who played for the country team at various time. We can see familiar faces in the second hundred as well - Vyacheslav Eingorn, Yuri Kruppa, Vladimir Malaniuk... And where are the ambitious youngsters? Alas... sporadic soars of our boys (like Pavel Eljanov's winning in Polianica Zdroj) have not brought any dividends as yet. Certainly, it is not for everybody to flash like a supernova as a Russian Alexander Grischuk did. But frankly, a development period is somewhat delayed with many of our promising lads. Remember a talented Kharkov player Sasha Zubarev who surprised us at Donetsk Zonal Tournament two years ago - he won the second place in a severe competition and penetrated the world championship. However, this success has not been adequately supported as yet...
 
Let us hope that Zubarev's fellow man Alexander Moiseenko will make more out of a successful start. He is making a good progress now. At the recent tournament in Capelle la Grande Sasha has covered the distance assuredly, gained 7 points and even entered the share-out for the third place. Shoulder to shoulder finished an experienced Odessite Stanislav Savchenko. By the way, it cost a lot to obtain such results. The point is that at the crucial moment - before the closing round - the Internet web-site failed and it is only the memory of another player - Kievite Spartak Vysochin - that saved the situation. Thus, the point group 6.5 consisted of Vadim Malakhatko, Nazar Firman and Spartak himself. Yuri Kruppa (the last year tournament winner), Valeriy Neverov, Georgy Timoshenko, Alexandar Berelovich, Andrei Volokitin, Aleksandr Shneider and Gennadi Kuzmin finished with 6 points. Generally, our landing party at this competition conceded in quantity only to the 'host team' and the 'Russian national team'.
 
The mass coming-out of our players to Capelle is quite explainable. The organizers proposed good terms which is an excellent support for the unspoiled Ukrainians. We have not enough to swear by of our domestic tournaments and what we have is, as a rule, subject to plenty of provisions. For instance, the leading grandmasters of this country do not know clearly as yet what the destiny of this year zonal tournament may be (the new selection system for the world championship made it unnecessary) and what the country championship will look like... Our chess players still dream of the transparency proclaimed by the leaders of the Ukrainian Chess Federation at the recent annual conference.
 
A bit more about travels of our countrymen. The February record belongs, probably, to Vladimir Baklan. The Kievite managed to play four matches in Bundesliga, then took part in the French Club Championship and ended with a quick chess marathon in the Netherlands. By the way, there he was holding the second place for a long time but, evidently, his ability to cope was not enough. Vladimir lost two last mini-matches - though to Picket and Epishin themselves - left the top ten list.
 
Now about Linares. This tournament stands out among the previous ones by a special selection of players. Earlier the organizers picked up jus the strongest players, now they cared about the local colour as well. This approach worked well. Karpov and Kasparov awakened nostalgic feelings for those times when chess popularity competed with the interest to football. Shirov, who is recently a permanent contender to world chess crown, proved again that he is treading the paths to Olympus not for nothing. A special person - she-vampire Polgar - does not cease to attract attention by her appearance even when playing disgustedly. The youth - Leko and Grischuk - manifest the chess of the future, maybe they are future champions... Generally, the blossom cluster was motley. However, the struggle turned to be not so interesting! Garry Kimovich explained quickly who is worth what and took the first place without any problems while the line up finish of the rest proved that the average elite class is really average.
 
In conclusion, what do we have in this month? The tournaments in the Spanish town of Badalone have already started where one of the participants is our fellow - an Odessite Viktor Moskalenko. In Bucharest our country is represented by Mikhail Brodsky from Kharkov. Then the Rapid Chess World Cup will follow in Cannes. There, for the first time for many years, Garry Kasparov will play in a FIDE event again. Is is a step to reconciliation? At the same time Monte-Carlo will witness the traditional Amber Tournament. There the company will be more starry than in Cannes. Let us see what so high competition will produce.
 
 
 
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