We always wonder why someone is successful in chess. The rating should say everything about the ranking before the tournament. However the Chigorin memorial was won second year straight by local player Kirill Alekseenko ahead of 26 higher rated players. I studied his games and made some conclusions. First, he is very good in a small battle, meaning he can calculate very well the small tricky lines. He has his own opening repertoire. All together he is a very good practical player. I do not know only how fast he plays. His style is very similar to Wishy Anand. He is not very deep however. If he can find how to dig deeper into the game he might become next Nepo.
What about others. There are and always were a lot of young talents around. I do not think it makes any sense to praise them. First you need to become a man to see how much fight you really have. Chess is a sport and to foresee the future of today’s prodigies is not possible. The veteran players, only Kamsky perfomed well, in my opinion over his expected value. The playing conditions were difficult. The record number of players were all playing in one hall which definitely was too small. Anyway it was an Open tournament not a supertournament.
The final results.
The crucial games of Alekseenko.
In the last round he needed only a draw and his opponent was too stuborn to take a draw, but still very characteristic game to describe the winner.
Estonian Champion Ottomar Ladva had big hopes before the tournament, but blunder in round two took him aback.
At the end Ottomar finished with 6 points losing some rating points. In the following game he managed to win the game dispite falling into his opponent preparation. Comments by Ottomar Ladva.
Finally I like to thank the organizers inviting me and Ottomar Ladva to take part of the chess festival.
Jaan Ehlvest