Chess - The Scotsman 07/11/12

MIKHAIL CHIGORIN (1850-1908), bearded and hard-drinking, was certainly one of the three or four best players in the world towards the end of the 19th century, and the first Russian to devote his life to chess.

He achieved Karl Marx-style status by being regarded as the father of Russian chess and the inspiration for the Soviets’ hegemony of chess that followed.

So it is not surprising then that his native land enshrines his name with a long-running series of memorial tournaments, won by no fewer than five world champions – Lasker, Alekhine, Botvinnik, Smyslov and Tal – not to mention other luminaries as Korchnoi, Polugaevsky and Taimanov. This year’s Chigorin Memorial, a large Swiss Open, was held in his birth city in St Petersburg and attracted a field of 350 including more than 50 grandmasters.

This is a large number, and indeed it made the event a truly cosmopolitan affair, spread out over the nine rounds. Russian chess still has strength in depth, so many of the favourites (such as top seed Alexei Shirov) found to their cost very early on that they wouldn’t have it as easy as they would normally in a large Swiss open.

When the dust finally settled, the title went to Ukraine’s Alexander Areshchenko, who edged out Bartosz Socko of Poland on tie-break after both visiting grandmasters scored 7.5/9.

B Socko - V Karasev

Chigorin Memorial, (3)

Sicilian Kan

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 a6 5 Nc3 Qc7 6 Bd3 Nc6 7 Nxc6 dxc6 8 0–0 e5 9 f4 Nf6 10 Kh1 Bc5 11 Qf3 Be6 12 f5 Bc8 13 Qg3 Kf8 14 a4 a5 15 Nd1 b6 16 Ne3 Bb7 17 Nc4 Re8 18 Bd2 h5 19 Bg5 b5 20 axb5 cxb5 21 Bxf6 gxf6 22 Nxa5 h4 23 Qf3 h3 24 Nxb7 hxg2+ 25 Qxg2 Qxb7 26 Ra5 Ke7 27 Rxb5 Qc8 28 b4 Be3 29 Qe2 Bf4 30 Rxf4 exf4 31 Qf2 f3 32 Qxf3 Qc7 33 Qf2 Rb8 34 Rc5 Qd6 35 e5! fxe5 36 f6+ Kf8 37 Qf5 Qe6 38 Qg5 Rg8 39 Qh6+ Ke8 40 Qh7 Kf8 41 Qh6+ Ke8 42 Qe3 Rxb4 43 c3 Rbg4 44 Bb5+ Kd8 45 Qd2+ 1–0