Chess is still very popular in Russia. The traditional festival in Saint Petersburg saw record number of chess players. The festival started with blitz tournament on Friday October 14th. Total 13 rounds of chess and nearly 300 players. The participants were around the Word. From Brazilia to China. Still not so many players from EU.
From Baltic states only myself and Ottomar Ladva. Nothing to do with politics. Just the tournaments in Russia are very strong and to count for prize money you need to play very well. Half professionals, the players who just enjoy chess still prefer to play in other tournaments. For chess holiday people are looking for open tournaments in Spain instead of Russia. Still if you are serious about chess you should go to Russia. I was just playing the blitz checking my current form.
The time control was the usual FIDE prefered three minutes plus two second increment. My games went up and down which is fine with blitz. Still my old mistake, playing too quickly cost me few points. As a veteran player I was used to play blitz without increment and two seconds is enough to punish the mistakes on board. Typical game was against Sjugirov.
Crucial game for me was against ELO favorite Lu Shanglei. I was white and just blundered in a good position. Draw in the last round could not help to get higher then 19th place. Still consicering the tournament took place on my birthday I was happy with my overall result.
Missed opportunities.
The complete results here.
Jaan Ehlvest