Western Europe has many leagues with the German Bundesliga and the Dutch team championships among the best. The Bundesliga is studded with top-class players. But the strongest league is the Russian with the 10 premier teams all being quality outfits.
Four boast three 2700+ players each. Out of the 80 players in the premier teams, (six boards, eight team members), 65 are
GMs and 11 IMs. Russian teams are supported by local oligarchs, who splurge to hire top talent. There’s a helluva lot of prestige at stake for the patrons, who are all themselves strong players.
The Russian league has a 10-day schedule. This time it’s on at Dagomys, a Black Sea resort. The time controls are noticeably quick...It’s 100 minutes for 40 moves, 50 minutes for 20 moves and ten minutes + 30 seconds increment for the remainder.
ShSM64 of Moscow leads after seven rounds (9-round league) with 13 match points ( 6 wins, 1 draw). The lineup is Gelfand (rating 2750), Karjakin (2725), Wang (2715), Caruana (2680), Grachev (2667), Riazantszev (2665) , Najer (2665), and Savchenko (2652). Second is the St Petersburg Chessfed, (Ivanchuk, Svidler, Movsesian, Vituigov, etc) with 11 MPs and Economist of Saratov (Wang, Eljanov, Tomashevsky, etc) with 10 MPs.
In team play, captains have a right to offer and accept draws on behalf of their team. Sometimes, players must wait for other results before committing themselves.
From an earlier team event, the DIAGRAM, (Gashimov Vs Grischuk, Bursa World Team Chps 2010), White to Play,. is a contender for “king-walk of the year.” Azerbaijan-Russia were tied 1:1. Yakovenko (Russia) had a small edge against Radjabov. Here, Grischuk is objectively winning but he has to avoid stumbling into mate, perpetual or some combination.
Gashimov played 27.Rc1! Kb6! Grischuk didn't like what he called the “impractical” 27. - Qxd3 28. Qe5 a5! (he saw 28.--Qd6 29. Rxc3+ loses and 28-- Qd5.29. Rxc3+ Kb6 30. Qe3 probably draws), which offers king-shelter after 29. Rxc3+ Bxc3 30. Rc7+ Kb6 31. Rxc3 Qb1+ 32. Rc1 Qb5 33. Qe3+ Ka6 33. Rc5 Qb1+ 34. Rc1
The Russian top-board’s choice leads to an epic king-walk. Gashimov continued 28.Be3+ Ka5 29.a3 Ka4! 30.axb4 Qxd3 31.Qa5+ Kb3 32.Rxc3+ Qxc3+ 33.Bd2 b6! 34.Qxb6 Qe5+ 35.Kd1 Bb7! Good defence that returns material to counter-attack. 36.Qxb7 Rhd8 37.Rf3+ Ka2 38.Rf2 Kb1! 39.Qf3 Rac8 40.Qb3+ Qb2 41.Qxb2+ Kxb2 (0-1).
As Grischuk described it, Yakovenko chewed his nails and waited without making a move on the next board while this mad scramble occurred. Immediately after Grischuk’s win, Yakovenko forced a quick draw to ensure victory for the team. If Grischuk had lost, Yakovenko would have had to grind away.
(Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player)
