by Misha Savinov

Five tournaments are included into the December report, and all of them saw triumph of Soviet chess school, represented by Russian and Ukrainian players. Young Evgeny Alekseev became a sensational winner of the Russian Superfinal, a tournament previously won by Kasparov and Rublevsky. Alexander Morozevich did wonders in Spanish Pamplona. Vassily Ivanchuk and Yury Drozdovsky came first in Torre Memorial and European Rapid championship. Finally, young IM Boris Savchenko won the Aratovsky Memorial, another mystery tournament in Saratov. Peter Leko, who led the ACP Tour after November, was pushed by this Russian mafia down to the third position, being replaced by Alexander Morozevich.

Memorial N.Aratovsky, Saratov

LEVEL: E (R = 2614)

WEBSITE: –

Tournaments held in Saratov already have a special feature: their organizers have little intention of informing the world of chess about any sides of their events. The Aratovsky Memorial was not an exception. However, it was covered better than the round-robin tournament played earlier in the autumn, as we were informed at least about the tie-breaking system applied, namely color distribution, like in the Aerolfot open. This allowed Boris Savchenko coming above Konstantin Chernyshov. Only two ACP members were found among the top finishers.

1-2 Savchenko, Boris 249
1-2 Chernyshov, Konstantin 249
3-11 Pashikian, Arman 68
3-11 Kryakvin, Dmitry 68
3-11 Smirnov, Pavel 68
3-11 Evdokimov, Alexander 68
3-11 Askarov, Marat 68
3-11 Oleksienko, Mikhailo 68
3-11 Lysyj, Igor 68
3-11 Iljin, Artem 68
3-11 Svetushkin, Dmitry 68
12-23 Aveskulov, Valeriy 9
12-23 Burmakin, Vladimir 9
12-23 Tihonov, Jurij 9
12-23 Karavaev, Vladimir 9
12-23 Dyachkov, Sergej 9
12-23 Voitsekhovsky, Stanislav 9
12-23 Vorobiov, Evgeny E 9
12-23 Iskusnykh, Sergei 9
12-23 Zhigalko, Andrey 9
12-23 Shaposhnikov, Evgeny 9
12-23 Kornev, Alexei 9
12-23 Zubarev, Alexander 9

Russian Championship Superfinal, Moscow

LEVEL: D (R = 2622)

WEBSITE: http://russiachess.org/content/category/6/29/80/

The 3^rd Superfinal of the Russian championship turned into a semi-junior event with more than a half of the lineup representing younger generation of Russian chess. Challenging ambitious youngsters proved difficult for the defending champion Sergey Rublevsky, however, he was the only one who defeated the new champion, St. Petersburg grandmaster Evgeny Alekseev. Another ‘aging’ big man, Peter Svidler, was more successful to take part in the 3^rd place tie and actually get some ACP Tour points.

Dmitry Jakovenko was in the lead for most of the time, but Alekseev caught up with him soon before the end of the distance. The grandmasters shared the first place and the prize money, and were to play tie-break games to determine the champion. Despite Jakovenko having the initiative in both rapid games, Alekseev overcame him 1.5 to 0.5, and completed an outstanding hattrick for St. Petersburg – Ekaterina Korbut won the women’s Superfinal and Konstantin Sakaev took home the Russian Cup.

The tournament was covered in detail at various Russian sites including the official site.

1-2 Alekseev, Evgeny 352
1-2 Jakovenko, Dmitry 352
3-4 Inarkiev, Ernesto 128
3-4 Svidler, Peter 128

XIX Carlos Torre Repetto in Memoriam, Mérida (MEX)
LEVEL: F (R = 2585)

WEBSITE: http://www.carlostorre.org.mx/

Outstanding Vassily Ivanchuk added another trophy to his impressive collection of silverware by winning the Carlos Torre Memorial in Mexico. In the final of the knock-out event he defeated Cuban Lazaro Bruzon. The most difficult for the Ukrainian was the very first round, when he needed extra games to pass tenacious Rodney Perez. It eventually became easier with higher-rated opponents... One could not pass a well-made website – browsing it was easy even for a person who doesn’t read Spanish, like me.

1 Ivanchuk, Vassily 160
2 Bruzon, Lazaro 80
3-4 De La Paz, Frank 56
3-4 Ehlvest, Jaan 56
5-7 Graf, Alexander 36
5-7 Georgiev, Vladimir 36
5-7 Leon, Manuel 36
8 Tiviakov, Sergei 20
9-16 Perez, Rodney 16
9-16 Vera, Reynaldo 16
9-16 Gonzalez, Zamora Juan Carlo 16
9-16 Martin Del Campo, Roberto 16
9-16 Quezada, Yuniesky 16
9-16 Zapata, Alonso 16
9-16 Nogueiras, Jesus 16
9-16 Milov, Vadim 16

European Individual Rapid Championship 2006, Warsaw

LEVEL:c (R = 2654)

WEBSITE: http://www.poloniachess.pl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=164&Itemid=6 1

Yury Drozdovsky, young grandmaster from Odessa, Ukraine, won the European Individual Rapid championship in the capital of Poland. This year the tournament struggled to attract more than just a few strong players from adjacent regions as an addition to some (but not all!) local stars. However, this should not make the achievement of Drozdovsky insignificant in the reader’s eye – after all, the player had shown that he is capable of competing with the very best in Corsican events in November. Long before that he became known as Shtopor (‘corkscrew’) for many Internet-addicted chess fans, showing world class skill in blitz games at various playing servers. See, playing in the net can help your chess!

1 Drozdovskij, Yuri 275
2 Malakhatko, Vadim 200
3 Gajewski, Grzegorz 150
4 Olszewski, Michal 110
5 Vysochin, Spartak 110
6 Miton, Kamil 85
7 Aleksandrov, Aleksei 65
8 Zhigalko, Andrey 55
9 Macieja, Bartlomiej 55
10 Bologan, Victor 45
11 Rozentalis, Eduardas 40
12 Cicak, Slavko 35
13 Sulskis, Sarunas 35
14 Fedorchuk, Sergey A. 33
15 Socko, Bartosz 30
16 Narmontas, Matas 25

XVI Torneo Internacional Ciudad de Pamplona

LEVEL: C (R = 2654)

WEBSITE: http://www.chesspamplona.com/

The most important tournament of the month (according to our LEVELs at least) was won confidently by Alexander Morozevich. He ignored the Superfinal in favor of a short-running Pamplona, and triumphed soundly. The result of Morozevich could be even higher had he find a number of earlier wins or convert Q vs. R endgame against his compatriot Dmitry Jakovenko. New vice-champion of Russia Jakovenko came behind, followed by Alexei Shirov, who finally found people eager (or careless) to see some fire on their boards!

1 Morozevich, Alexander 400
2 Jakovenko, Dmitry 240
3 Shirov, Alexei 144
4 Bauer, Christian 88

Summary

Russian players dominated in December, and they keep dominating in the overall list as well. Five Russians are in the top 8, and the leader of the ACP Tour 2006/07 race is Alexander Morozevich, whose victory in Pamplona put him into a solid first place. Ernesto Inarkiev moved to the second place. Dmitry Jakovenko fell one point short to catch up with Peter Leko.

January report will include the ACP World Rapid Cup, two groups of Wijk aan Zee and Gibraltar open. With many points at stake, there will be a major disturbance to the standings. Stay tuned!

Chessbase photos and photos from official sites of the tournaments were used in the report