Boris Savchenko won the “Crown”
From February 18 to 27, the GREENWOOD 4* Hotel in the Moscow Region hosted the “Russian Chess Crown” International Festival. Organized by the Moscow Region Chess Federation with the support of the Ministry of Sport of the Russian Federation, the “Intellect” Group of Companies, and technological partner idChess. The event featured a total prize fund of 7.5 million rubles
Over the course of 10 days, four competitions took place: Tournament A for titled chess players and Tournament D for lower-rated players (both with classical time controls), as well as blitz and rapid tournaments. The participants impressed everyone with their passion, will to win, and uncompromising play. Thanks to this, the festival is set to become one of the top three most popular open tournaments in Russia, alongside such long-standing events as the Aeroflot Open and the Moscow Open.
Boris Savchenko – the champion of “Russian chess crown”! Having won the game of 10th round at the 1st table against Zhamsaran Tsydypov, the 39-year-old player from Moscow region has unanimously topped the table with 8 points.
In total, he won 7 games and none of them were easy for Boris. In every match, he had to navigate challenging situations, but his willpower and determination proved to be the decisive factors in his success.
“What was the key to winning all these games?” The champion smiles in response to the question. “Honestly, I don’t know. In each of them, I fought to the very end and tried to pose problems for my opponents. I doubt I wanted to win more than they did, but at a certain point, luck was on my side. From there, it was all in God’s hands!”
The other two places on the podium were occupied by Ramil Faizrakhmanov (silver) and Mark J. Bakojo (bronze), the match between them lasted only a few minutes. Both scored 7.5 points and in addition to decent prize money won a grandmaster norm.
The winner of Tournament D was 18-year-old Samir Mahmudov, representing the Perm Krai. He finished with a score of 8 out of 10 points. Three other players: Dmitry Shakhov, Kirill Minnullin and Tatyana Shimanskaia finished just half a point behind him.
The festival brought together more than 500 chess players and honorary guests representing 20 countries, including many CIS nations, as well as Argentina, Cuba, Egypt, India, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mali, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Zimbabwe. Naturally, the majority were domestic players who traveled from all corners of our vast country to compete for the “Russian Chess Crown.”
Players from 53 regions of Russia took to the boards: Moscow, Saint Petersburg, the Moscow, Astrakhan, Bryansk, Vladimir, Volgograd, Vologda, Voronezh, Ivanovo, Kaluga, Kaliningrad, Kemerovo, Kostroma, Kursk, Leningrad, Murmansk, Nizhny Novgorod, Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Orenburg, Penza, Rostov, Ryazan, Samara, Saratov, Sakhalin, Sverdlovsk, Smolensk, Tambov, Tver, Tula, Tyumen, Ulyanovsk, Chelyabinsk, and Yaroslavl regions; the Khanty-Mansi and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs; the Altai, Zabaykalsky, Krasnodar, Perm, Primorsky, and Stavropol Krais; and the Republics of Bashkortostan, Buryatia, Crimea, Komi, Mari El, Tatarstan, North Ossetia-Alania, and the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).
The festival’s main tournament featured more than 100 FIDE international titleholders from various distant countries. Among them were Grandmasters Mithrobha Guha (India), Maksim Tsaruk (Belarus), Saparmyrat Atabayev, and Meilis Annaberdiyev (both from Turkmenistan). The top seed of the “Russian Chess Crown” was the reigning Russian Champion, Arseniy Nesterov. Other prominent Grandmasters included Nikita Afanasiev, Denis Khismatullin, Sergey Drygalov, Zhamsaran Tsydypov, Boris Savchenko, Ilya Iljiushenok, Vladimir Zakhartsov, Ivan Rozum, and Vladimir Dobrov.
The event also showcased many promising young talents: World, European, and Asian champions Erdem Khubukshanov; the youngest International Master in history, 11-year-old Roman Shogdzhiev; as well as Nikolai Averin, Stanislav Bukreev, Alexander Usov, Artyom Bardyk, and Nikolai Kleimenov. Representing the Moscow Region were Sergey Karjakin scholarship recipients Isaak Parpiev, Alexander Fedosov, and Svyatoslav Lisenkov.
For players from Russia and Belarus, the festival offered another crucial advantage: the opportunity to achieve international titles, breaking the artificial blockade currently surrounding our chess players. Many participants successfully seized this opportunity!
The festival garnered immense global interest. Utilizing idChess technology, the games were broadcast on major chess platforms. Every day, thousands of chess fans worldwide tuned in to live commentary in multiple languages provided by Grandmaster Sergey Shipov and FIDE Masters Jonnie Habla and Daniel Causo (both from the Philippines).
One could not have imagined a better start for the “Russian Chess Crown”!