30 September 2010
Alexandra Kosteniuk’s Chess News & Trivia (c) 2010
Mikhail Chigorin
Hi Everyone,
Will you be in Moscow this October? If yes then don’t miss the Chess Festival M.Chigorin Memorial to be
held in ‘Moskva’ hotel (2 Al. Nevsky square). It includes two tournaments.
A. Rapid chess tournament, October 26-27, starts at 17:00
Time control 15 minutes per game + 5 seconds increment for each move, 9 round Swiss. Entry fee: 1000 roubles (for juniors under 16, seniors and women – 800 roubles). Registrations are accepted on October 26, 9:30 – 16:45. The prizes are paid out in Russian roubles (official rate on August 17 is 1 euro = 39.11 roubles).
Total prize fund (granted by St. Petersburg Chess Federation) – 400 000 roubles:
B. Classical chess tournament – stage of Cup Russia, October 28 – November 05
Total prize fund (granted by St. Petersburg Chess Federation and Russian Chess Federation) – 1 400 000 roubles:
The winners qualify for the final stage of Russian Cup according to the Russian Cup 2010 regulations.
And, something about Chigorin in whose memory this event is held. M
any Russians regard Mikhail Chigorin as the founder of their ‘School of Chess’, later to become known as the Soviet School of Chess. Overshadowed to some extent in the 1920s by the exciting new theories of the hypermodern movement, Chigorin’s influence nevertheless demands a prominent and permanent place in the Soviet chess hegemony of the 20th century.
Chigorin has several chess openings or variations of openings named after him, the two most important being the Chigorin Variation of the Ruy Lopez (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 O-O 9.h3 Na5) and the Chigorin Defence to the Queen’s Gambit (1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6).
Whilst the former has remained popular through the 1900s, the latter struggled to attract a great many devotees until relatively recently. Igor Miladinović has used the Chigorin Defence with great regularity, but its current revival owes much to the efforts of Alexander Morozevich, who has championed the opening both in play and in his book – The Chigorin Defence According To Morozevich (published 2007).
Alexandra Kosteniuk’s
Also see her personal blog at
