Russian exodus — and a rising star

The Soviet (oops, Russian…) invasion of Ukraine has resulted in a number of grandmasters afflicted by conscience defecting to more liberal regimes. Putin’s realm of perpetual winter was foreshadowed by Garry Kasparov’s Cassandra-like prophecy, Winter is Coming. The litany of discontents is impressive, a literal brain drain of Russian elite chess players. Kramnik and Kasparov are long gone, and here is the list of fellow legal migrants from that unhappy land. According to the journalist Tarjei J. Svenson, these comprise :

GM Nikita Vitiugov – Russia to England, September 3

GM Sanan Sjugirov – Russia to Hungary, August 23

GM Maksim Chigaev – Russia to Spain, August 17

GM Anton Demchenko – Russia to Slovenia, July 28

GM Vladimir Fedoseev – Russia to Slovenia, July 27

GM Kiril Alekseenko – Russia to Austria, July 7

GM Alexander Motylev – Russia to Romania, June 14

GM Alexey Sarana – Russia to Serbia, April 21

GM Alexandr Predke – Russia to Serbia, March 3

GM Alexandra Kosteniuk – Russia to Switzerland, March 3  (Alexandra, of course, is also a former women’s world champion.)

From a British point of view , our national squad has benefited from the flight of Nikita Vitiugov, who parachuted directly onto board one for the English team, ahead of David Howell and that universal syncoppi, Mickey Adams, in last month’s European team Championship. There Vitiugov justified his elevation, scoring two wins, several draws and no losses. Serendipitously coinciding with the new and unprecedented £1 million UK Government grant for chess is the fact that Vitiugov is not just a first rate practitioner of the science and art of chess, but also a world championship level coach and trainer.

A brief enumeration of his numerous exploits will suffice to demonstrate his variegated prowess. Born in St Petersburg in 1987, Nikita Kirillovich Vitiugov became an International Grandmaster in 2006. He took silver in the World Youth Championships, 2006, in Herceg Novi and was a key member of the winning Russian team at the World Team Championship (2009) in Bursa, winning individual gold, and again in Ningbo (2011).

His good form continued into 2013 when he placed equal 1st at the Gibraltar Masters 2013 with 8/10, and then won the Tiebreaks to seize sole first prize. More recently his perihelion has been winning the Russian Championship Superfinal (2021) with 7/11 (+3 -0 =8).

Vitiugov strongly opposed the Russian invasion of Ukraine and decided not to return to Russia after the war began. He has, as reported above, now switched federations to England.

There has been speculation as to whether Vitiugov or Sultan Khan is the strongest émigré to seek refuge in England. I humbly submit that this particular accolade, in fact, belongs to world champion Wilhelm Steinitz. He played in the London tournament of 1862, and then settled in London for over twenty years, making his living at the London Chess Club. He emigrated to the USA in 1883.

As I bid farewell to our readers until the new year, I conclude with two wins by Vitiugov and a reminder that the laurels of the great Steinitz should not be consigned to the realm and oblivion of Styx, Acheron, Phlegethon, Cocytus, Lethe, Avernus, the classical rivers and lake of Hades. This is, incidentally, a Latin hexameter in the style of Horace. I had thought that this line already existed in the opus of either Horace himself or perhaps Virgil, but a literary hunt has failed to unearth it. Unless I hear from a Classics scholar to the contrary, I must assume that I have accidentally created a new riverine Latin Hexameter.

As to games …First of all:

Steinitz’s London Swansong against a great rival, before he permanently relocated to USA. White seems to be forcing events, but the final blow …b6 cuts off White’s queen and forces checkmate. While resident in London, Steinitz won matches against Anderssen, Zukertort, Blackburne and Bird.

Johannes Zukertort vs. Wilhelm Steinitz (1883)

That is the past; looking now, into the future, two games by England’s new #1, Nikita Vitiugov. The first is a demolition of the then-yet-to-be-crowned World Champion.

Nikita Vitiugov vs. Ding Liren (2012)

And to take us into the new year, his board one destruction of a Super-Grandmaster in the match with the Netherlands.

Jorden Van Foreest vs. Nikita Vitiugov (2023)

As a postscript it may well be that the Universal Spidey, Mickey Adams, will reclaim the top spot in the English team from Nikita Vitiugov after his recent glorious victory in the London Classic, as reported in this column last week, boosts his rating.

Serendipitously, FIDÉ (the World Chess Federation) last week announced that henceforth a team of refugees will be invited to compete in the biennial chess Olympiads. A sign of turbulent times, perhaps. Even more turbulence is being created by eight year old Bodhana Sivanandan, a diminutive young lady who first swam across my mental horizon when this year she defeated the former British Champion Peter Lee by the overwhelming score of 3.5 to 0.5 in a four game rapid match. Bodhana went on to win all her games in three FIDÉ world championships for the youngest competitors, held at varying time limits. Now she has emerged as the top female player in a major adult rapid play event in Zagreb.

These are all astonishing results for a child of eight. If Bodhana pursues her successful trajectory with equal force, it is no exaggeration to say that her poise, accuracy, determination and sheer talent might even carry her forwards to the supreme chess title, the first outright British World Champion since the days of the Victorian polymath, Howard Staunton. Bodhana, doubtless, will form the topic of many future columns extolling her multifarious virtues and achievements.

Finally, in the season of the famous and fateful decree from Caesar Augustus, St Luke, Chapter 2, verse 1, I wish all readers of TheArticle a Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year. 

Ray’s 206th book, Chess in the Year of the King , written in collaboration with former Reuters chess correspondent, Adam Black, appeared earlier this year. Now  his 207th,  Napoleon and Goethe: The Touchstone of Genius  (which discusses their relationship with chess and explains how Ray used Napoleonic-era battle strategies to develop his own chess style) has materialised,  in time to complement Ridley Scott’s new epic biopic. Both books are available from Amazon and Blackwell’s.

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