Esipenko Enters World's Top 30 At Russian Team Chess Championship
GM Andrey Esipenko, the 19-year-old Russian who beat GM Magnus Carlsen at the 2021 Tata Steel Chess Tournament, continued to impress this week. At the Russian Team Championship, Esipenko scored 6.5/7 while playing for the winning team, Mednyi Vsadnik.
How to watch?
You can find, play through, and download all games of the event on our Events page: Premier League | Women's Championship | Higher League.
Russia is one of many countries that are partially lifting their restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic. This change made it possible to host a much bigger over-the-board event than the Candidates in terms of the number of players: the national team championships.
Standard safety and security regulations were in place as well as a measure that we have seen during the 2020 Biel Chess Festival. Also in Sochi, the players played with plexiglass in the middle of the board to avoid the spread of aerosols.
The event consisted of three sections: the Premier League (a round-robin of nine teams with six boards and two reserves), a women's section, and a lower section called Higher League (both with four boards and two reserves).
The winning team, Mednyi Vsadnik (Bronze Horseman) from St. Petersburg, secured victory with a round to spare and ended up winning all its matches. The runner-up was the Moscow Chess Team, followed by another team from the capital named Gogolevsky 14, which refers to the address of the famous Central Chess Club.
| Rk. | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | TB1 | TB2 |
| 1 | Bronze Horseman | 4½ | 4½ | 3½ | 3½ | 4 | 4½ | 5 | 5 | 16 | 34,5 | |
| 2 | Moscow Chess Club | 1½ | 4 | 3 | 3½ | 3½ | 4 | 5 | 5 | 13 | 29,5 | |
| 3 | Gogolevski 14 | 1½ | 2 | 4 | 3½ | 3½ | 3½ | 5 | 5 | 12 | 28,0 | |
| 4 | KPRF (Moscow) | 2½ | 3 | 2 | 2½ | 3½ | 3½ | 4½ | 4½ | 9 | 26,0 | |
| 5 | Wildberries Youth (Tyumen) | 2½ | 2½ | 2½ | 3½ | 4 | 3 | 1½ | 6 | 7 | 25,5 | |
| 6 | School of M. Botvinnik (Moscow) | 2 | 2½ | 2½ | 2½ | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4½ | 5 | 23,0 | |
| 7 | Rook (Tatarstan) | 1½ | 2 | 2½ | 2½ | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4½ | 5 | 22,0 | |
| 8 | SSHOR Chess and Checkers | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1½ | 4½ | 2 | 3 | 2½ | 3 | 16,5 | |
| 9 | Cimmeria (Crimea) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1½ | 0 | 1½ | 1½ | 3½ | 2 | 11,0 |
The star of the Bronze Horseman team was Esipenko, whose 6.5/7 was the best performance of any player in the league. Interestingly, five of his six wins were scored with the black pieces.
An impressive game was in round three against GM Alexey Sarana. Esipenko's play (or perhaps just that octopus on d3!) evokes GM Garry Kasparov's power chess:
Esipenko won 15.4 rating points in Sochi, is now at 2716.4, and is the new world number-26, passing the English number-one, GM Michael Adams, as well as two other Russians, GM Daniil Dubov and GM Peter Svidler.
The women's section was won by the Moscow Chess Team. Headed by GM Kateryna Lagno, who also scored 6.5/7, the team finished three points ahead of Southern Ural-1 (Chelyabinsk region), the same club that did manage to win the Higher League.
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