Tomashevsky wins Russian Higher League

Evgeny Tomashevsky won the Higher League of the Russian Championship, a super-strong, 11-round Swiss, with a score of 8/11. He qualified for the Russian Championship, which will be held later this year in Moscow, together with GMs Vitiugov, Riazantsev, Khismatullin and Timofeev.

The Higher League of the 62nd Russian Championship took place September 2-13 in Ulan Ude, the capital of the Republic of Buryatia. The city is located about 100 km south-east of Lake Baikal on the Uda River at its confluence with the Selenga.





The name Ulan-Ude was bestowed upon the city in 1934 and means "red Uda" or "red gate" in Buryat, reflecting the communist ideology of the Soviet Union to which it belonged.



Ulan Ude is located on the main line (Trans-Siberian line) of the Trans-Siberian Railway between Irkutsk and Chita at the junction of the Trans-Mongolian line (the Trans-Mongolian Railway). Besides, there is a large and highly unusual statue of the head of Lenin in the central square, the largest in the world.





Photos: Wikipedia

The tournament was an 11-round Swiss in which a total of 57 players participated. The rate of play was 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves followed by 15 minutes to finish, with a 30-second increment. The prize fund was 2,500,000 rubles (€ 55,439 / US$ 81,262).

Evgeny Tomashevsky took the first prize of 500,000 rubles (€ 11,087 / US$ 16,252.50) and so he repeated his success earlier this year, when he won the gold medal at the European Championship in Budva, Montenegro. As always, the Higher League functioned as a qualifier for the super final of the Russian Championship, which will be held in Moscow in December. Besides Tomashevsky, the other qualifiers were Nikita Vitiugov, Alexander Riazantsev, Denis Khismatullin and Artyom Timofeev. (Update: According to tournament regulations, Buchholz was the first tiebreaker. Creating a table in Chessbase gives me: Timofeev 43.25, Landa 41.25, Lastin and Zvjaginsev 38.75, Sjugirov 37.50.)

Russian Championship, Higher League 2009 | Final Standings (top 40)

All games by Tomashevsky

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN