ShSM-64 Leads Russian Team Ch

Yah, I'm still alive. Boss in town, lots of work, going on the road, lots of damaged body parts.

Chess can be rough on the ankles. Okay, actually, it was basketball. Initially the x-ray tech thought it was a small fracture + sprain. Orthopedist downgraded that to a bad sprain on Tuesday, which is something. Still hobbling around with one of those big padded ski boot things on. Really bad timing since this weekend I'm schlepping upstate with Garry to speaking engagements at Colgate University and meetings at Cornell and later Columbia. Let's hope my pain meds hold out.

Meanwhile, back on the chess ranch, the club ShSM-64, led by Gelfand and Karjakin, is in the lead of the Russian Team Championships with six of nine rounds in the books. Karjakin is on 4/5 undefeated on board two. His teammate Riazantsev is also doing well with the same score. Karjakin slowed down Eljanov of the Saint Petersburg team, who had three wins in a row including takedowns of [ctrl+v] Nepomniachtchi and Jakovenko. Svidler is on +1 while Grischuk is on a humble even score on board one for Yugra. Ivanchuk is having an even worse time, with one loss and four draws for St. Pete.

There have been many exciting games, though I haven't had much time for analysis or reading that of others. Motylev-Karjakin was a good defense against a wild attack by Motylev, who pitch a full rook and knight but came up short. Malakhov walked into a cute little trap by grabbing a pawn against Chadaev with the first new move of the game. He found out quickly why it's a no-no. 20.f4 threatens Bg4+ and so wins a piece. He played on 35 moves down a piece to delay having to face his teammates. Also in round 1, the incredible career of the white knight in Krylov-Landa is a must-see. It starts with being indirectly protected on the rim on a4, then a cute attraction sac jump to c5, then it simply tears up the black position like a knight tour whirlwind. The black king is frog-marched to e1 and Black has to give up a lot of wood to postpone mate.

Motylev's sacrificial tendencies paid off in the second round when he nailed Eljanov in a strange game. White seemed to be all right when he got rid of the dangerous black bishop on b7, but the bishop sac on h2 refuted White's attempt to hold on to the material. Bologan should have had enough material for his queen by playing Nxd5 on move 33 or 34, getting his e-pawn moving. Instead he lost quickly to Tomashevsky. Shimanov-Timofeev is some good fun typical of the Botvinnik Semi-Slav. Ponomariov beat Ivanchuk in a dominating rook endgame. Gelfand beat Grischuk in what must have been a wild one to see live. White has all sorts of threats, but in post-game it's clear Black just defended everything and good night. 22.Qh4!? would have been hard to meet OTB though. Caruana, also on the leading ShSM-64 squad, gets an extra chocolate Easter bunny for the final move of his win over Potkin in round 5. Funnily enough I noticed the capture 30..Qxf3!(?) but not the much stronger move Caruana played to end things immediately.