Сalm before the Storm: Week 6 in Division 1 Review
In a couple of days Russia and Ukraine will play another supermatch to define a winner of regular season.
For both rivals it could be a victory in battle but not in war as they will face each other again in Champions Pool in the end of October.
They will be a accompanied by Team Iceland and most likely by Srbia Tim.
But theoretically we could see a funny situation after the last round.
If France beats Serbia while Argentina beats Kazakhstan – three teams could share the last ticket to Champions Pool.
But Team France has to make “Bob Beamon`s jump in Mexico-1968” to come it true.
Let`s have a look how Round 6 results have created this intrigue.
The Steppe Tiger has finally awaken up!
Team Kazakhstan had its strongest squad in Season 4 on 54 boards.
It was not enough to resist 80 players-strong Team Ukraine in Blitz and Bullet.
But in Rapid-960 there was very tense and exciting match with numerous victories by Kazakh player.
Two newcomers strongly contributed into Team Kazakhstan performance.
FM Bibisara Assaubayeva @SaraBlackPanther is a 5-times junior World Champion (in different age categories)
Aparently FIDE is going to assign Bibisara a title of WGM in September https://ratings.fide.com/title_applications.phtml
She won two good games in rapid-960 especially this one by criss cross trick 26….Bd4+!
IM Kirill Kuderinov @krasavetc is a champion of Kazakhstan-2010.
In his starting match for Team Kazakhstan he managed to outsmart GM Evgeny Sharapov @CherepZhenya
The crucial moment of this double-edged rapid-960 game happened after 31.Ra5?! which looked strong but was losing in fact after 31….Qg4! 32.Qxe4 Qxd1+ 33.Kf2 Bd8!! and Bb6+
GM Sharapov didn`t noticed that tricky bishop maneuver and after 31…Qxa4? White was an upper side.
Some profiles of good players from Ukrainian side.
Roman Kifliuk @romakif was the best Team Ukraine player in Season 3.
After that even local newspaper in Roman`s native town Kamianets-Podilskyi published a big article about him.
Here is Roman`s blitz game in his favourite style: seizing the initiative from the first moves and mating attack then!
I liked his smart trick 26…b6! after his opponent grabbed a pawn greedy, black Rook joined to mating attack via open a-file
A couple of day ago it was a birthday of Roman Kifliuk.
Best wishes to you! Hold on, brother!
On photo: players of Team Ukraine on Kyiv Chess Day-2019, from left
Mykola Tymchenko @tum_nik, IM Alexey Palekha @rainspistols, Alexander Matlak, Roman Kifliuk @romakif, Oleksandr Shtymak @Shtymak1994
Another cool game was won by Bogdan Feschenko @kykyryzka
His opponents overdid original maneuvers like 13.Na1?! 16.Nh1?! and the last one was a fatal mistake
On photo: Sharp position in friendly game Bogdan Feschenko @kykyryzka vs Roman Kifliuk @romakif
As a usual, good job was done by Artur Sevosteenko @UAArtur both as a streamer and as a player.
Serbia – Argentina: Match of the Week
Big and close battle was expected here but unfortunately it didn`t happen.
In that pair I would bet on Serbia anyway but so big advantage was surprising.
It seems Argentina Live Chess limited its ambitions only to saving place in premiere league.
That is a pity, in match against Ukraine we saw twice bigger squad of Argentina.
Otherwise Srbija Tim was in a good shape with lots of experienced players.
For instance, FM Borislav Radanović @RavenNS
Despite trading Queens his mating attack didn`t stop in this game
Enormously tenacious game in Botvinnik system was played Black by Hector Fiori @hectorfiori
By 39.Bd6+?! his opponent FM Milan Jocev declined perpetual but Black King has finally escaped from mating attack…
Without any titled players in Team France`s squad it would be unreasonable to bet on it.
For comparison that day Team Iceland had 16 (!) titled players including GM Bragi Thorfinnsson @B-man.
As a result Icelandic masters heavily beaten French amateurs.
FM Ingvar Thor Johannesson @Zibbit could be call “Hero of the Match” as well as “Anti-hero of the Match”
On one hand Ingvar won an amazing game in the style of Nimzowitsch`s immortal zugzwang game
On the other hand he blundered mate in 2 having totally winning position against French player Bogdan Munteanu @Bogdanmunt
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Unfortunately Team Slovakia was lacking of just one player to avoid a forfeit.
Nevetheless games were played and Team Russia expectedly had a huge advantage
In his stream IM Mikhail Lushenkov @mikhaillushenkov showed that he was going to checkmate by 28.Rd5!
But even if Slovak player watched Misha`s stream he could avoid checkmate but not a loss in the game
From Team Slovakia side good game was won by Gerhard Pribila @pribi who punished his opponent for risky king`s walk
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Friends, it`s hightime to invite all of you to watch a supermatch Team Russia vs Team Ukraine this Sunday:
- LCWL S4 Div.1 Rd.7 Bullet 1+1Team Russia vs Team Ukraine
15.09.2019 21-00 Kyiv (18-00 UTC)
https://www.chess.com/live#tm=4361
- LCWL S4 Div.1 Rd.7 Blitz 5+2Team Russia vs Team Ukraine
15.09.2019 21-20 Kyiv (18-20 UTC)
https://www.chess.com/live#tm=4362
- LCWL S4 Div.1 Rd.7 Rapid-960 10+2Team Russia vs Team Ukraine
15.09 22-00 Kyiv (19-00 UTC)
https://www.chess.com/live#tm=4363
Not a big secret that Team Ukraine is going to delegate its strongest squad as for Season 4 to the match.
Obviously, Russians are going to do the same.
We had a little stronger squad during the Season, but Team Russia has a higher potential for improvement.
All four results (3-0, 2-1, 1-2, 0-3) are possible.
In comments you can bet both on match results and number of boards! 
See you next week!
