A Spectacular Siberian Game
2015 has seen quite a few spectacular games, and this week another one was played. Again, Denis Khismatullin was involved.
The game was played at the Governor's Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, the capital of the Yugra region. Besides Moscow it is a major chess location for Russia, having hosted many World Cups, an Olympiad and other tournaments in recent years.
The Governor's Cup is the last preliminary tournament for the Russian Cup; the Cup final will be held right after this one, also in Khanty-Mansiysk.
The strongest participants are Vladislav Artemiev, Ivan Bukavshin, Denis Khismatullin, Sanan Sjugirov and Aleksandr Rakhmanov. Two of these players played a fascinating game in round three.
Khismatullin, who played that wonderful game against Pavel Eljanov in February in Jerusalem, was on the losing side this time. It was a classic case of deceiver deceived, as Sanan Sjugirov had looked a bit deeper in this the tactical mayhem:
The kind of game that warms you up in cold Siberia! Although Peter Svidler stated that the Icelandic climate was “familiar,” suggesting that it was one of the factors behind Russia's success last week. (Or was it the football played at their training camp, as Ian Nepomniachtchi mentioned in an interview?)
After four of the nine rounds, top seed Artemiev is in shared first place with Sjugirov and Aleksandrov, with 3.0/4.
17-year-old Artemiev seems on his way to reach a 2700 rating soon. He had no problems with Mikhail Antipov's sideline Sicilian:
Here's another fine game from the same tournament, played in the fourth round. White plays the Catalan, or makes his opponent believe so. Before you know it he has castled...queenside!
2015 Governor's Cup | Round 4 Standings (Top 10)
| Rk | SNo | Name | Ti | FED | Rtg | Pts | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 |
| 1 | 1 | Artemev Vladislav | GM | RUS | 2676 | 3 | 9,5 | 8 | 2 |
| 2 | 4 | Syugirov Sanan | GM | RUS | 2646 | 3 | 8 | 6,5 | 2 |
| 3 | 6 | Aleksandrov Aleksey | GM | BLR | 2615 | 3 | 7,5 | 6,5 | 2 |
| 4 | 5 | Rakhmanov Aleksandr | GM | RUS | 2637 | 2,5 | 9 | 7 | 1 |
| 5 | 2 | Bukavshin Ivan | GM | RUS | 2657 | 2,5 | 8 | 6,5 | 1 |
| 6 | 14 | Timofeev Artem | GM | RUS | 2555 | 2,5 | 7,5 | 6 | 1 |
| 7 | 23 | Litvinov Maksim | RUS | 2391 | 2,5 | 7 | 6 | 1 | |
| 8 | 12 | Rozum Ivan | GM | RUS | 2559 | 2,5 | 6,5 | 6 | 2 |
| 9 | 9 | Goganov Aleksey | GM | RUS | 2597 | 2,5 | 6,5 | 5,5 | 1 |
| 10 | 3 | Khismatullin Denis | GM | RUS | 2654 | 2 | 9,5 | 7,5 | 1 |
(Full standings here.)
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
Peter's first book The Chess Revolution is out now!
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