Poikovsky has grown up amongst wild eternal taiga and swamp. It is quite a calm place where the chess activity started five years ago, mainly thanks to efforts of the world champion XII Anatoly Karpov and the head of local administration Alexander Klepikov. It gained a rushing start then! It was expected that the tournament was going to be not a simple round-robin event dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Nefteyugansk region but rather a serious competition. First, at that moment the first children chess school in Khanty-Mansiysk autonomous region was opened. Karpov sponsored opening of the similar schools in country and all around the world. Second, the main idea behind the competition was to propel an interest for chess amongst the young generation.
Many prominent grandmasters came to the first tournament from various countries - China, Indonesia, Brazil and others. The international master Sergei Pozin represented the local players.
Here is an opinion of one of the participants of the first tournament, GM Evgeny Sveshnikov: "From my trip to the far northern Siberian land I brought a certitude that Karpov's enterprise would not die. Four months ago in the Poikovsky settlement (!) a nice chess club has been established where the Karpov chess school operates. There are an access to the Internet, perfect chess tables, clocks and, the most important, lots of young pupils. Many new workplaces have been created for the chess professionals and opening of the schools enables many young international masters and grandmasters to look in the future with confidence." Sveshnikov scored then +2 and shared 3-4 places with Jaan Ehlvest.
There is no positive historical and geographical evidence that allows recollecting another similar village or settlement, where an international chess tournament is being held, a children's chess school works with more than 400 pupils, where a swimming pool and a University operate (the latter one has a 8-year history) and where one of the popular disco club for the youth features a library…
This time it was the fifth super tournament in Poikovsky. For the first time, three grandmasters with ELO rating over 2700 took part in the competition - Alexander Grischuk, Ivan Sokolov and Vladimir Malakhov. The tournament was very smooth in its composition, there were no obvious outsiders. The steady participant of the competition Giovanni Vescovi was replaced by the Chinese grandmaster Zhang Zhong this time. The average ELO rating reached 2676, which corresponds to the FIDE category XVIII.
Unlike the Linares tournament, this one began with a determined struggle - there were three wins in round 1. Oddly enough, Black won in all three games, which seldom happens in the super tournaments.
Alexander Grischuk's interview
Q: Are you invited for the next year tournament?
A: Yes, they invited everybody. The organizers have good relationships with all the grandmasters who play there.
Q: Didn't you sign the official contract?
A: I hear about it for the first time. Bykhovsky told me about the tournament. Perhaps, somebody signs such contracts but I think usually it is a matter of parole d'honneur. I guess, they send me an e-mail…
Q: Is this a usual practice in Russia?
A: This happens anywhere else…
Q: What about the whether in Poikovsky?
A: It was -10-15 centigrade before our arrival. Then - immediately - 25!
Q: And the foreign guests were not prepared?
A: The playing hall was about 50 meters away from the hotel so we did not suffer from cold.
Q: How did you spend your leisure time?
A: Mainly, I played the Russian billiard with Alexandrov and Rublevsky, with a moderate success. Besides, there were three banquets. On the day off we went to a cottage and had some barbecue. The organizers did their best to accommodate us.
Q: How did you prepare for the competition?
A: I did not prepare for any particular player; I continued my routine work as usual. And I am pleased with my performance there. However, I lost an approximately position to Bologan. I exchanged on b6 and then a question arose: if I would be able to capture the white pawn that got there? If I would, then I would gradually win, if not, then my position was difficult. It turned out that I could not capture it…
Q: It was said that the participants came a week before the tournament in order to acclimatize themselves…
A: Nothing of the kind. A half of them came on the day before, another half - on the evening before the tournament started.
Q: What was the time control?
A: Two hours per forty moves and an hour until the end of a game without the increment.
Q: Perhaps, no increment was not the best option for you?
A: It really was not habitual for me. It is better to have less time for thinking but with some increment per move. These are the seconds that make play calmer - you can leave little time apprehending not the loss on time. And there you simply dropped the flag and that was all…
Q: How did participants treated this control?
A: It was very unusual in the beginning. Three games in round 1 finished in the following way - I promoted two pawns to queens, Alexandrov did checkmate Bologan's naked king with the rook and knight and Rublevsky checkmated Zhang Zhong with a single rook.
Q: Were there a lot of audience?
A: Mainly they were kids, the pupils of Karpov school. There were few other spectators, but a lot of people came to watch the last round.
Q: A standard question - what are your plans for the future?
A: I am leaving to take part in the French league, then it will be Dagomys, the Russia team championship. Our league becomes stronger year after year.