Sochi 2010 looking to overcome lack of recognition for chess in Russia
Leonard Barden
The Guardian, Saturday 10 April 2010
Russia stages the world’s strongest national team championship, yet it receives little publicity. This is partly due to a slow website, and also because most of the team names are non‑geographical.
For several years, however, Tomsk were the team to beat. The Siberians, though, were out of contention at halfway in this week’s 2010 contest in Sochi, where Moscow and St Petersburg squads vied for the lead.
Both front-runners fielded six-player 2700-rated teams, a level which would outclass the best sextet from the UK. The Russian nucleus was boosted by grandmasters from the old USSR, China, and even the odd Westerner. Thus Scotland’s Keti Arakhamia-Grant, a former Georgian, played on one of the women’s teams.
Two young GMs have advanced in Sochi. Sergey Karjakin, 20, began with 4/5 and strengthened his claim as a potential rival to his world No1 contemporary, Magnus Carlsen.
Here is the full article.
That’s terrible.