Ongoing: Ukranian, Russian Championships
I don't anticipate giving these events much further coverage, if any, but a quick mention of these two strong national championships is not out of order.
The Ukranian Championship is 6 rounds in and after winning three and then drawing three Ruslan Ponomariov has a half point lead over Yuriy Kryvoruchko. Five rounds remain, which is probably five too many for tailender Valeriy Neverov, who lost two games in 53 moves, one in 73 moves, and, most brutally in a rook and knight vs. rook ending, in 210 moves. (Have a look!)
The Russian Championship is a nine-round Swiss that just started on Thursday (yesterday for most of you as I write this), and while it's not as strong as it often is there are nevertheless six players rated over 2700. (Nikita Vitiugov is the top seed.)
Reader Comments (2)
I think it might be misleading to portray this as an "absolute" Russian Championship. The so-called Higher League, since the time of the USSR, has been a qualifier for the "real" Championship, which is an all-play-all tournament (whereas in Yekaterinenburg the Swiss system is used) and will probably be held later this year.
It's still a terribly strong event, of course, also because it gives us a chance to watch some very interesting players who are not too active these days (such as Motylev, Riazantsev, Inarkiev etc.)
[DM: Ah, thank you for catching that error on my part. I've ridiculed the naming system for the Russian championship in the past for the linguistic inflation, but the opportunities for confusion are relevant as well. They should call it a qualifier or a semi-final instead.]
Confusion about naming systems isn't limited to the Russian Championship and its qualifiers. It also can arise - at least - for Dutch and French team competitions: in the Netherlands, "Klasse 1" (first class) is below "Meesterklasse" (master class); in France, Nationale I is below Top12. In both countries, the first class is actually held regionally (two and three groups), not nationwide.