2nd May, 2003

FROM the end of the Second World War, and indeed for up to a decade
before, the old Soviet Union was the world's chess superpower: a mantle
inherited by Russia after the break-up of the USSR.

The two biggest cities, Moscow and St Petersburg, remain the top centres
of chess, and so their championships, both of which have just concluded,
are of interest even though many of the top players did not take part.

After a series of qualification tournaments, the Moscow Championship ran
from 16 April until 30 April: a tough 32-player knockout event that had
among the field 15 GMs and 15 IMs. In a triumph for the seedings for
the tournament, the top two players Vladimir Malakhov and Evgeny Najer
won through to the finals after beating Sergey Shipov and Evgeny
Vorobiov respectively in the semifinals. And in the best-of-four-game
final, Najer defeated Malakhov by 2.5-1.5 to take the title.

By contrast, in St Petersburg they had a traditional all-play-all that
ran 16 April until 28 April, though this was weaker, averaging just 2517
(category 11). Nevertheless, it was well known in Soviet times - and no
doubt holds today - that "every Russian town" contains at least one
almost unknown player strong enough to inflict damage on visiting
grandmasters; and sure enough, IM Denis Yevseev took first place ahead
of the chasing grandmaster pack with an unbeaten score of 8/12 to win
his first title.

D Yevseev - K Aseev
St Petersburg Ch., (11)
Catalan Opening
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 g3 Bb4+ 4 Bd2 Bxd2+ 5 Qxd2 d5 6 Bg2 0-0 7 Nf3 Qe7 8
0-0 Rd8 9 Rc1 b6 10 cxd5 exd5 11 Qf4 c6 12 Ne5 Bb7 13 Nd2 Nfd7 14 Ndf3
Nxe5 15 Qxe5 Qf8 16 Qc7 Rd7 17 Qf4 f6 18 Rc3 Na6 19 a3 Re8 20 Qd2 Nc7 21
e3 Nb5 22 Rc2 Nd6 23 Ne1 Ne4 24 Qb4 Qf7 25 Nd3 h5 26 Qb3 h4 27 a4 hxg3
28 hxg3 g5 29 a5 b5 30 a6 Ba8 31 Nb4 Qh5 32 Nxc6 Kg7 33 Nb4 Rh8 34 Rac1
Kg6 35 Qd3 Rdh7 36 Qd1 g4 37 Kf1 Ng5 38 Qd3+ f5 39 Nc6 Bxc6 40 Rxc6+ Kg7
41 Qxf5 1-0

JOHN B HENDERSON