News
About Natalia
Games
Our Team
Articles
Gallery
Chess Links
Play Chess
Pogonina's Chess Shop
Advertise
Contact Us

Highlights

 Follow Natalia on Twitter:

http://www.pogonina.com/images//nat%20twit.jpg

 
Please help Natalia promote chess by making a donation:



 

Link to Pogonina.com

Play chess at ChessOk

365Chess.com Biggest Online Chess Games Database





Check qyto.jp for Japanese bitcoin casinos.

Here you can find Swedish sites without license, Spelkonto utan licens.

Find new casinos at the brand new Online Casinos XYZ site with reviews and ratings of the best gambling sites for UK players.

Play the popular King Kong Cash slot machine at Slot Strike, the new slot site for UK players.

Grab the chance to win big with a high RTP on the goonies slot progressive jackpot.

Goodluckmate.com - made an easier way to find Skrill casinos

Nettikasinot.media lists the best online casinos for Finnish gamblers. For more information visit: https://www.nettikasinot.media/suomalaiset-kasinot/  

Sweden is now a regulated market, which means that as a player you can only play at casinos with a license. See all regulated
casinos in Sweden by Mr casinova.

To find the best casino in Norway take look at
norske casino at CasinoPiloten.

Find the best Norwegian casinobonus at NyeCasinoNorge.org.

Get exclusive access to a
huge range of free spins & no deposit casino offers with Spin Bonus.

Try the exhilarating new 20p Roulette game.
Play it online at thecasinodb and find casinos to play for real money.

Get the best casino bonus information with Casino Gorilla.

Chess games at Gametop

CasinoAdvisers.com For you that want to find online casino strategies, guides and a good casino bonus!

 
   ...


Polls
What's your FIDE rating?

What should Natalia do to make Pogonina.com more interesting for you?

Who is your favorite active top player?

Poker or chess: what do you like more?

What's the largest monetary chess prize you ever won?

How much time per day do you spend on chess-related activities?

Do you have a special chess mascot (pen, badge, toy, etc.)?

Which time control do you prefer for over-the-board tournaments?

The strongest women's chess team in the world is

What is the strongest national chess team in the world?

Will Magnus Carlsen's rating reach FIDE 2900?

Do you think you can become a GM?

Ruslan Ponomariov wins Ukrainian Championship

User Rating: / 1
PoorBest 
Written by Administrator   
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Author: Montmorency

Twenty years after becoming independent, the Chess Federation of Ukraine has finally organized a national championship that has attracted probably the strongest field ever. Well, maybe with the exception of the 2004 event when 32 top players (excluding Ruslan Ponomariov and Vladimir Baklan) took part in a knock-out tournament. It is surprising that at that time the prize fund was just $10,000. This time 12 players were competig for about $75,000. The progress is evident, but everything is relative in our world. This amount will neither impress athletes involved in many other types of sports, nor will it surprise the Russians. Ok, we know what we should be aiming for...

This year's championship was the 20th for independent Ukraine and 80th overall. Let me share with you some interesting pictures:

Image

Lyubov' Yakir (left) is 6-times Ukrainian champion. She is nearly 90, but still visits all chess events. Next to her are IA Lublinsky and a well-known coach Lazareva. On the right (far away) is Ruslan Ponomariov's sister Lyudmila.

 

Image

Two grandmasters - Anton Korobov (a participant of the championship) and Vladimir Malahatko (competed at many Chess Olympiads, winner of the World Team Chess Championship-2001), originally from Ukraine, but playing for Belgium now.

 

Image

The chieft arbiter of the event Leonid Bodankin and the head of the Ukrainian delegation at international events Leonid Timoshenko.

 

Image

Efim Lazarev, a well-known chess journalist, is to the right. To the left is the head of the  chess comission for physically disabled people Alexei Radchenko.

 

Image

WGM Ananstasia Karlovich is performing a "weapon check" before taking pictures.

Image

GM Pavel Eljanov and WGM Tatiana Kostiuk

 

Image

Lyuda Ponomariova (right) with her friend. She resembles her brother, right? I have also heard she knows how to play chess, but didn't have a chance to check if it's true...

 

Image

Alexander Kovchan posing with Tania Kostiuk. Both of them used to live in Chernigov.

 

Now to the tournament...

 

Image

Image

Anton Korobov tried the KID against Ruslan Ponomariov. In this game things went well for him, but in general his play at the championship became one of the main disappointments for fans.

 

Image

East coast vs west coast - a draw. Politicians, take notice!

 

Image

Andrei Volokitin

 

Image

Post-mortem analysis

 

Image

Eljanov-Moiseenko game was the last to finish. Pavel was doing his best to beat his friend Alexander, but he managed to get away in a suspicious rook endgame.

 

Image

The times of demonstrators with long pointing sticks are gone.

 

Let's skip 1.5 weeks of fiercome fights and visit the last round of the championship.

Just like in Hollywood blockbusters, the main fight took place in the last round. Ruslan Ponomariov had 0.5 points more than Alexander Moiseenko, but needed at least a draw with Black to clinch the title.

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

 

Silver and bronze were at stake in two other matches:

Image

Image

Pavel Eljanov lost his chances for gold, but could win silver in the case of a successful result against an outsider.

 

 

Image

These grandmasters are not competing for medals, but there is also prestige and a difference in the amount of prizes. A win allowed Volokitin to finish 5th.

 

Image

Local boy Spartak Visochin is waiting for his opponent to arrive (the game finished i n12 moves), while Nastia Karlovich is quite busy taking pics.

 

Image

The playing hall. Chief arbiter Leonid Bodankin reminds everyone about the "no mobile phones" rule. However, not all the participants followed it, not to mention that the arbiter's own phone used to ring from time to time quite loudly...

 

Moiseenko was visibly tense during the game and spent most of the time sitting at his place.

Image

Image

 

Ruslan was relatively relaxed and casual - walking around and leaving the hall quite often. When White's position started looking ruin-like, he stopped his travels and started awaiting his opponent's resignation.

Image

 

The last game of the tournament that earned Eljanov silver.

Image

 

The happy winner being questioned by the media. Meanwhile, Ruslan has left the playing hall and changed his outfit for the awarding ceremony. Pavel was less lucky in this respect...

Image

 

Then we had to wait for 1.5 hours for the ceremony. Having nothing else to do, I started looking around and noticed a sweet couple:

Image

Now I know why she would instantly rush to the exit after the end of the Volokitin-Miroshnichenko game.

 

The closing ceremony was visited by FIDE's President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. From left to right: Sergey Bubka, (a legendary olympic champion), Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, Ravil Safiullin (head of the National Sports Committee), Viktor Kapustin (head of the Ukrainian Chess Federation), Leonid Bodankin (chief arbiter).

Image

Image

 

Nastia Karlovich is still occupied

Image

 

The long-awaited moment of prize giving

Image

Image

Image

Image

 

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and his exciting speech. One of the points was that FIDE will be taking note of leading chess players who don't take part in the national championships and punish them (up to disqualifying from major events). Hmm, are any positive measures in store too?

Image

Image

 

Other speakers sounded less impressive and revolutionary...

Image

 

Finally, Viktor Kapustin announced the end of the tournament, and the informal part began.

Image

Image

Image

Image

 

One more pic - bronze-prize winner Zakhar Efimenko:

Image

 

Thank you for your attention!

 

 

P.S. I nearly forgot the final standings. Here it is:
 

1. Ruslan Ponomariov (2754) 8,5

2. Pavel Eljanov (2712) 7,5

3. Zakhar Efimenko (2701) 7

4. (2679) 7

5. Andre Volokitin (2677) 6,5

6. Yuri Krivoruchko (2640) 6

7. Alexander Areschenko (2694) 5

8. Evgeny Miroshnichenko (2651) 5

9. Anton Korobov (2660) 4,5

10. Spartak Visochin (2550) 4

11. Yuri Vovk (2529) 2,5

12. Alexander Kovchan (2558) 2,5


 Bookmark and Share




Comments (3)
1. Written by This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it on 10:07 02 2011 .
 
 
GM
Truly speaking my sister Ludmila don't know how to play chess. She is playing on violin.
 
2. Written by Montmorency on 15:08 02 2011 .
 
 
GM
Thank you for your clarification, Ruslan. I'll take it into account in the future.
 
3. Written by This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it on 21:19 19 2011 .
 
 
WGM
Thank you for the report.I found myself on the photos.It was really great event for the Ukrainian chess.
 

Write Comment
Name:
E-mail
Homepage
Title:
BBCode:Web AddressEmail AddressBold TextItalic TextUnderlined TextQuoteCodeOpen ListList ItemClose List
Comment:



Code:* Code

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 28 June 2011 )
 
< Prev   Next >