This year, the First League of the national championship is, as is well known, undergoing what might be called a prolonged life cycle. Qualification for the USSR Championship is being conducted under new rules, with greater attention paid to the interests of the regions. Thus, the strongest players of the RSFSR and Ukraine received two places each directly in the final on the basis of the results of their respective championships. Two places are allocated to players from the other republics and from Leningrad, who competed for qualification in the zonal tournament in Daugavpils. Finally, one place was reserved for the champion of Moscow. At the same time, it is naturally assumed that several grandmasters will play in the First League, many of whom will seek to qualify. But what actually happened?

The chief coach of the Moscow team, master G. Struminsky, explains:

“The Higher League of the Moscow Championship was planned with the following composition: the three medalists from the previous championship, 4–5 winners of the First League (a new tournament for Moscow, held at the beginning of this year), and 5–6 grandmasters. Unfortunately, it proved impossible to achieve the objective of attracting top-class players — only three grandmasters agreed to play. The others, as has often happened in the past, had more or less valid reasons for declining.

“As a result, a dilemma arose: either admit more participants from the First League to the final, which would undoubtedly lower the average Elo rating, or reduce the number of finalists. We chose the latter option.

“The Higher League of the Moscow Championship brought together only eight players (Moscow chess fans hardly need reminding that there had been no comparable case for at least the previous twenty years). Even so, the tournament did not lose in quality — the average rating of this ‘micro-tournament’ exceeded 2500. The players also made a strong creative contribution: most of the games were fought in tense and interesting fashion.”

If one recalls the familiar saying that “fortune favors the first,” it can be said that from the very first day luck smiled on the youngest participant — 23-year-old grandmaster Evgeny Bareev. He took first place with remarkable ease, practically without serious competition.

Of course, detractors may point out that one of the winner’s games ended because of a serious mistake by his opponent, while another ended because the opponent failed to appear. But if these games are examined carefully, it becomes clear that neither outcome was accidental: in every encounter, except the last one when victory in the tournament had already been secured, Bareev tried to set his opponents the most difficult possible problems, readily entered complications, and displayed excellent competitive qualities in critical positions.

Evgeny won first place convincingly, and by his active and reliable play he fully deserved the victory. This was all the more so because he had already been playing actively and successfully for a long time: eight years earlier, while still only a Candidate Master, he had first played in a semifinal of the Moscow Championship, and he had also represented our country at the World Youth Championship (it may be recalled that he became World Cadet Champion in 1982). And how interesting his debut in the USSR Men's Championship was, in Kyiv in 1986! Only a setback in the penultimate round prevented him then from joining the group of championship debutants near the top.

Among the other finalists, Valentin Arbakov stood out. His record included the best result, apart from the winner, against the younger players, while especially important from a sporting point of view was his last-round victory over grandmaster Yuri Balashov. Unfortunately, the tie-break coefficient placed him only fourth.

B. Valentinov