7 May 2015
The New Superclub from Siberia
Vladimir Barsky reveals the story of creating a new chess powerhouse.
We can dispense with such big words as "rebirth" or "renaissance", but the current lineup of the club championship of Russia inspires optimism indeed. First of all, this time as many as almost 60 teams arrived, compared to the last year's 17 (13 men’s and 4 women’s teams). There are new groups now: seniors, boys, and girls. Moving the event from Aqua Loo into the premises of the legendary Zhemchuzhina has obviously contributed to the excited curiosity of chess fans. In addition to curiosity, there is a financial incentive as well, for the Grand Hotel Zhemchuzhina has offered very attractive prices to chess players for the period of May holidays. This is no coincidence that a great deal of people (including the author of this article) has seized this opportunity to come to Sochi with their families and friends.
In addition to that we have now a new super club Siberia of Novosibirsk featuring Vladimir Kramnik and Levon Aronian on the first two boards. If my memory serves me right, the former World Champion has never participated in the Russian top league. Levon, on the other hand, has for several years played for Tomsk-400 and assisted yet another Siberian team to become a two-time winner of the European Club Cup. It looks like they have distinguished Aronian for his authentic Siberian character and have therefore invited him to join the team from the neighboring region. President of the Novosibirsk Chess Federation Pavel Maletin, who has been up to recently contributing to our website with his brilliant reviews, smiled and did not attempt to refute this assumption.
Speaking seriously, a new ambitious sponsor has entered the Russian chess arena, the fact which cannot but make us happy. The general partner of the team is RATM Holding, with the support of which the championship of the Novosibirsk region and the chess tournament for children and youth were carried out last year during the XIII International Investment Forum Sochi-2014. The founder and President of RATM Holding is a native of Novosibirsk Eduard Taran, who is as ardent chess fan as his father is.
"It is only logical that within the framework of the all-Russian projects there should be specific ones devoted to the Novosibirsk region”, Eduard Taran says. “In addition, having combined forces with the Chess Federation of Novosibirsk, we intend to organize the Federation Supervisory Board as soon as 2015, as well as to develop a regional chess development program. Special attention will be paid to promising players, who are in need of gaining competitive experience. I hope that one day a native of the region will bring home the World Title in this sport, whereas in the meantime we attempt to restore chess back to its former popularity."
Grandmaster Pavel Maletin provided details on how the team was organized:
"The goal was set for us to organize a club that would be capable of challenging the top position. I am grateful to the management of the Russian Chess Federation for having found an opportunity to accommodate us in the Premier League and for having assisted us in sorting out some of our organizational issues. We are very pleased that Vladimir Kramnik has accepted our invitation. He is a charismatic leader and has a lot of fans in Sochi, where he is viewed as if he were a fellow local insider. Levon Aronian is also a brilliant team player, who has already performed very successfully for our neighbors. Dmitry Jakovenko comes from Siberia as he was born in Omsk and spent his childhood years in Nizhnevartovsk. The Ukrainian GM Anton Korobov is to some degree our countryman too as he was born in Mezhdurechensk of the Kemerovo region. Vera Nebolsina, who lived in China and speaks Chinese, helped us with recruiting yet another of our mercenaries, Wang Yue. Frankly speaking, we initially intended to invite Ding Liren, but he had some problems getting his visa. On the other hand, Wang Yue is a very experienced and solid player, and this is extremely important for a team competition."
"Novosibirsk is represented by Dmitry Bocharov and me. Another member of the team is my friend Dmitry Kokarev from Penza, who for several years was my teammate of the Nizhny Tagil team “Polytechnic”. Our team representative is Vladimir Viktorovich Vorozheikin, who is the Vice President of Sberbank. Chess fans will never forget the wonderful rapid tournament held in 2012 in Novosibirsk on his initiative. It should in general be noted that Siberia is only one of the branches (although a very important one) of collaborative work of RATM Holding and the Novosibirsk Chess Federation. We will contribute to developing junior chess and intend to organize our own grandmaster school."
