Wednesday
Jun152011
Ponomariov Continues to Lead Ukraine Championship
Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 6:48PM
The Ukranian Championship in Kiev is extremely strong, and with several 2700s and several more players in the upper 2600s, it's almost as worth keeping an eye on as Bazna. The top seed, former FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov, has led from the very start, and continues in first place after 6 of 11 rounds. He has 4.5 points, half a point more than Yuriy Kryvoruchko and a point more than Pavel Eljanov, Alexander Moiseenko, Evgenij Miroshnichenko and Zahar Efimenko.
(Convenient English-language materials, for the non-Russian readers among us, are here.)
Reader Comments (3)
Volokitin-Efimenko, played wednesday, is recommended to all ! (http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/chessnews/events/ukrainian-championships-2011) (near the end of the list)
Closed Spanish where Black gets a tremendous initiative on the kingside (for a change). Complicated play, nice sequences, winning chances all the time, a fighting draw !
Oops, its the same link in Dennis post, sorry about that !
This might be the right place to mention that the "Russian Championship Higher League" is also underway. It's just the qualifier for the final later this year - players like Karjakin, Grischuk, Svidler and Nepomniachtchi may already be seeded into the final (I don't know when Kramnik last participated). "Second-tier players" who need to qualify include 2700ers Vitiugov, Jakovenko and Tomashevsky, former (high) 2700er Morozevich, European champion Potkin, ... but it also seems to be in the shadow of Bazna.
[DM: I knew it was going on, but didn't feel like mentioning the qualifier. It is very strong though, and there will certainly be some very high-level games and important novelties there.]