The strongest are getting stronger: Week 5 in Division 1 Review
“Secret weapon of Team Ukraine in action”, “lcelandic Chess Legend among us”, “Team Kazakhstan revival” – that is far from complete agenda.
That is not a breaking news that regular season champion will be determined in match Team Russia – Team Ukraine. Both teams has guaranteed itself at least the second place and arranged their match on 15th of September, start at 18-00 UTC.
The third ticket to Champions Pool goes into the pocket of Team Iceland.
There will be a big battle for the last ticket between Serbia, Argentina and France. The intrigue is none of the mentioned teams played each other yet!
In underdog`s battle Kazakhstan outperformed Slovakia. It means that under best-case scenario Team Kazakhstan could stay in Division 1 (for instance, if number of LCWL participant in Season 5 will grow to 50 so number of places in top division could be increased respectively).
Team Ukraine – Srbija Tim: Match of the Week
Both teams played each other a double-digit number of matches in LCWL with a total score close to equal.
Srbija Tim won the last heavyweight battle - final of Season 3 in Rapid
Result of the poll on Team Ukraine FB page showed that Ukrainian guys were confident in their victory.
But we deeply respect our opponent and always afraid to face some bad surprises.
Personally I have a special attitude to Serbian School of chess since my childhood. I remember when in Kyiv in the late 80-s my chess mates dreamed to get Šahovski informator.
This greatest chess openings edition of before-chessbase era was published in Belgrade on annual basis with a volume of 30 ths (!) items.
Despite a lion share of Šahovski informator volume were sold to former Soviet Union it was impossible to buy it in bookstores.
It usually took some hours (not days!) to be sold out completely so you could never see it on shelves.
Only grandmasters and master had a privileged right to get it out of queue.
Once my dad bought Šahovski informator as a birthday present for me paying 5-times official price.
Probably because to my especial respect to Serbia I performed very modest as a player in the match. I took 3 points our of 6 games setting my record in blundering: a piece, Queen (twice!) and Mate in 1.
You can admire my “masterpiece” with Black looking here:
Anyway congratulation to Serbian players Stefan Kostic @klaker_zuti and @bip-bip-bip who won games against me as my blunders were forced by their inventive play too.
From other side I performed much better as admin in the match and that was a point!
Team Ukraine gained comfort win thanks to the following factors:
Factor 1:
We had the strongest squad during Season 4.
In blitz section, 48 Ukrainian players were rated over 2000 and 16 of them were titled players.
106 Ukrainian players were ready to join the match.
Probably mentioned figures were the highest in LCWL as a whole.
Factor 2:
Best ever Serbian squad was in mentioned rapid final with 96 boards and 17 titled players.
If they had such Dream Team last Sunday the match would be at least equal.
Unfortunately, there were only Serbian 52 players including 5 titled players.
Factor 3:
We couldn`t afford to be ashamed in the presence of our beautiful ladies.
That day I was happy to announce debut WGM Anna Zozulia @WGMAnna in Team Ukraine.
Anna won the girls' under-16 World Youth Chess Championship in 1996.
She is also a Women's Belgian Chess Champion in 2011.
Now Anna works as a chess trainer for talented children in Kyiv.
On photo: WGM Anna Zozulia represents Belgium on Chess Olympiad
It was a bad luck for Serbian chess amateur who faced so proficient player as Anna.
Big honor for us was participation in the match WGM Olga Babiy @ZefirKa, member of national team of Ukraine.
Olga was a runner-up of Ukrainian Women Chess Championship twice (2015, 2017).
Her opponents in the match would agree that playing against top-professionals gives an aesthetic pleasure, but….poor sport results.
We had another Olga in our squad as well - WFM Olga Yushko @yushko_olga from Uzhgorod.
On photo: Olga Yushko plays on tournament Lviv Open sitting next to GM Helgi Grétarsson (by the way, member of Team Iceland)
She is 13-times (!) women chess champion of Transcarpathian region.
Olga regularly supports Team Ukraine in LCWL since Season 2.
Factor 4:
Probably in every team players complain it`s difficult to participate in LCWL matches due to family issues and so on.
Team Ukraine has found solution to the problem: bring your family members to match!
Mentioned above WGM Olga Babiy @ZefirKa supported Team Ukraine together with her husband - NM Igor Babiy @Big_Pirate.
Igor is a champion of Dnipro region and winner of Ukrainian super-tournament Cup of Independence-2016.
In blitz section Olga played on 10th board while Igor was pretty close to her on 13th board.
Brothers IM Viktor Skliarov @viktorskliarov and Oleksandr Skliarov @skliarov_oleksandr support our team regularly too.
Younger brother Oleksandr is IT-specialist and non-titled player officially.
But he has numerous victories in blitz over grandmasters both online and on board.
After all his rating on chess.com talks.
Elder brother Viktor is more honored as chessplayer respectively (Champion of Kyiv – 2016)
He is a teacher, trainer and intellectual games geek.
Officially Victor Skliarov is the first world champion in Frolov Chess.
This stuff is also known as Chess 1.0 invented by Ukrainian chess enthusiast IM Artur Frolov @ArturFrolov and could be mentioned as an advanced version of random.
Possible starting position in Frolov Chess:
Respectively IM Viktor Skliarov @viktorskliarov could be mentioned as Wilhelm Steinitz of Chess 1.0!
This year on big tournament in Pardubice (Czech Republic) Viktor Skliarov was close to gain Grandmaster title.
Probably, Serbian player Luka Vojinovic @luka95 would be interested to recognize who was his opponent in this bullet game:
And finally, we had father Dmytro Pylypenko @pylypenkodmytro and his son Radomyr Pylypenko @pylypenkoradomyr in our squad.
Unfortunately, they came to the match but couldn`t play due to lack of opponents from Srbija Tim side.
Obviously Srbija Tim won numerous good games in the match too.
For instance we could mention Dejan Babanić @babanareva – very strong and experienced club player from Smederevska Palanka town.
On photo you can see Dejan (left) playing with GM Danilo Milanović watched by Serbian legend GM Branko Danljanović (in yellow shirt).
In rapid-960 game he outsmarted Yuri Galichin @novik89 – chess trainer from Novomoskovsk (Dnipro region), who was one of the best Team Ukraine scorer in Season 3.
Despite of opponent`s material advantage Dejan managed to seize initiative and his attack on King finally succeeded.
His Rook manevuer Rf8-f5-f4 with killing threat Rh4# was sound
FM Djuro Škarić @Veleamater played with 12-years old CM Vadim Petrovskiy @petrovskiy_vadim one of the most promising Ukrainian juniors.
Vadim has already represented Ukraine on World and European Junior Championships and was very close to win a medal.
But experienced Serbian master showed that players of my generation are still capable to teach youngsters smth in chess.
Ukrainian junior had an advantage until blundering a pawn after 24….Ng6?
Then we can see a good example of attacking in position with opposite coloured bishops.
Mating net with attacking pair Q+B by @Veleamater looks nice too
Finally, thanks a lot to our streamers:
Artur Sevosteenko @UAArtur - link to stream
NM Alexey Yarovinsky @aborigen_came - link to stream
Serhiy Franchuk @fso - link to stream
Mafaaz Khalid @art-vega - link to channel
Another match of the week:
Absolutely strongest chess nation vs World`s strongest chess nation per capita
According to another poll on Team Ukraine FB-page surprisingly Team Iceland was mentioned as a favorite
But it was quite understandable due to our players hoped our main competitor lose some points so Team Ukraine`s way to defend a title would be easier.
When I opened a link to the match I said: “Wow! I see the Legend playing in our League!”
GM Johann Hjartarson @eldur16 as well as GM Friðrik Ólafsson are the most famous Icelandic chessplayers.
In order to feel that please look at this photo:
counterclockwise GM Johann Hjartarson; Godfather of Icelandic Chess Friðrik Ólafsson; Ukrainian super-GM Alexander Beliavsky; Petra Leewerick, wife of GM Victor Korchnoi; Victor-the-Terrible and 8th World Champion Mikhail Tal
In 1987 GM Hjartarson won Interzonal tournament and qualified for the World Championship Candidates.
In the first match he sensationally defeated super-GM Victor Korchnoi and that event was celebrated in Iceland like a national holiday.
So in the end of 80-s Mr. Hjartarson was in top-10 of the best chessplayers in the World.
Only 12th World Champion great Anatoly Karpov could stop a mighty Icelander then.
On photo: Candidates Quarterfinal GM Anatoly Karpov - GM Johann Hjartarson in 1989
My friend GM Eldar Gasanov @elgasanov played against Johann in LCWL match Team Ukraine – Team Iceland (Season 3, Champions Pool).
As he joined the match in a couple minutes before start he didn`t realize who was his opponent in fact until I told him after the game. But he said just after start he got a feeling a big Master was in front of him.
Probably the same feeling got Russian player NM Konstantin Kodinets @ChessShop
But he probably knew for sure he was playing against the Legend and didn`t believe to his eyes it was possible just to grab a pawn 22….Bxf4! or next move 23….Nxf4! 24.Nxf4 g5! with advantage
The game finished after tactical trick 31.Qxe3! using the pin motif
That day Team Iceland was very strong with 30 player rated over 2000 and 15 titled players.
It was a good job done by Icelandic admins including FM Sigurbjorn Bjornsson @Sigurbjorn.
By the way, Sigurbjorn is the strongest player among all admins of LCWL teams.
Among chess.com community he is well-known due to his great motivational blogposts I strongly recommend all of you guys to read:
Try your best - no matter what
Im blitz section game he outsmarted a popular streamer and leader of Team Russia - IM Mikhail Lushenkov @mikhaiklushenkov
Engine says that move 26.Rb7! “was a brilliant” and I see no ground for discussion:
The only problem for Team Iceland was its opponent, big and strong like a beast.
Team Russia represents a country “a little bit” bigger than Iceland (just in 500 times)! 
And a number of chess players in Russia is probably bigger than a whole population of Iceland.
Nevertheless you have no clue in LCWL kitchen if you think mobilizing >50 strong players for match is an easy job for vast-sized team.
So Russian superadmin Vadim Rakhaev @midav_veahkar and his colleagues did their best.
Vadim is known as one of the founders of Live Chess World League and member of BoD during first 3 Seasons.
He left the Board recently but keeps running his national team both as admin and player.
@midav_veahkar participated in World Fischer Random Champioship-2019
and managed to qualify to the second round. I assure you it was a big deal as I played there too.
In the match Vadim scored 5 out of 6 playing some good games.
I liked the most this bullet miniature because it reminds me a style of….my friend @UAArtur
Among Team Russia`s leaders I`d like to mention FM Anton Maidel @amaidel from Saint Petersburg.
Anton is a very devoted team player and we can see him on every match of TR both Live and Daily.
He won a good game in rapid-960 where even after trading Queens on 23th move tactical madness has just started
Stream of the match by FM Ingvar Thor Johannesson @zibbit you can watch here
It was a good news that after forfeit in Round 4 by Team Slovakia it didn`t give up and mobilized their team for the match.
Team Kazakhstan performes better and better every round and finally deserved its first points.
The only bad news that regular season has almost finished.
Leader of Kazakhstan @shakeeenzo won nice miniature provoking his opponent with a cunning move 15.h3!? and Black got into a trap missing 16.f4! idea
But Slovakian player @miss_tical paid debt back to @shakeeenzo in rapid960 punishing him for bluffing attack started with 15….Qg5?! instead of solid 15….c3! with equal position
Next round Team Kazakhstan play versus defending champion of LCWL – Team Ukraine.
We wish good luck to our Kazakh friends and highly appreciate they didn`t lose a will to fight despite bad start in Season 4.
Here is our music greeting to them:
Match of the Week 6 is probably Srbija Tim vs Argentina Live Chess and its result is very important for determination the last Champions Pool`s participant.
Thanks a lot for giving me useful materials for this blogpost to my friends and colleagues:
- Superadmin of Team Iceland Tómas Veigar Sigurðarson @lakituba
- Superadmin of Srbija Tim Nenad Radosevic @nemirena
