Team Belarus Strengthens Leadership at Mikhail Botvinnik Cup

Russians share 3rd place.

The second playing day of the Mikhail Botvinnik Open Cup among teams from the CIS countries and Georgia took place in the Cosmos Hotel in Moscow on August 11th. Rounds 3-4 saw the triumph of the Belarusian chess players. The third round happened to be the key one: in the leaders' match the Russian team lost to the Belarusians with a big score. The captain of the Russian team Alexey Korotylev unexpectedly lost to the juniors 1-3. All other matches saw a tough struggle: the Georgian team defeated Kazakhstan by a narrow margin, while the chess players from Azerbaijan won their match against the Armenian team. Two other matches encounters in a draw.   

In the fourth rounds, the team from Belarus convincingly won the match against the Kazakh chess players. Juniors drew their encounter against the grandmaster Rustam Khusnutdinov, while the captain Vladislav Kovalev won all his games again. The match between Russia and Georgia finished last: the Russian managed to win with a minimal score. 

Juniors Denis Lazavik (Belarus) and Khazar Babazada (Azerbaijan) took 2.5 points out of 4. The captain Vladislav Kovalev (Belarus) scored 15 points out 16.  

Tournament on Chess-Results
 

Information and photos by Alexander Ivanov