2^ND MILLENIUM'S LAST CITY BLITZ KNOCK-OUT CHAMPIONSHIP
ST.PETERSBURG 2000

Participant of the World Championship Sakaev, Konstantin (g RUS 2620), grandmasters Aseev, Konstantin ( g RUS 2581), Loginov, Valery (g RUS 2502), Yemelin, Vasily (g RUS 2503), Lugovoi, Aleksei (g RUS 2528), Popov, Valerij (g RUS 2555), and the Champion 1999 Eliseev, A. (RUS 2421) struggled for the last medals of the year. At first quarter-finalists were selected from 32 participants of the blitz championship. Aseev and Loginov failed to qualify at this stage. Still, quarter-final pairs were rather representative. Popov defeated Lugovoi, Alekseev, Evgeny (RUS 2509) knocked out Yemelin, Sakaev beat the international master Solovjov, Sergey (m RUS 2436). Yeliseev won in the match against the annotator who had been winner of this traditional event more than once. In the semi-final Alekseev, the young star of St.Petersburg, defeated Yeliseev. Sakaev left no chance to Popov. So the final pair Sakaev - Alekseev was half sensational. Well, the boy is growing up, and his rating is already the rating of a grandmaster. Nevertheless, his opponents were strong professional players. The first game with him was little pleasure for Sakaev: his young adversary arranged a beautiful mate. After three games the score was even, 1.5-1.5. Still the boy lost the fourth game, so Sakaev is the champion, Alekseev took second place, and Popov was third. Women played in the same hall with men. Two grandmasters met in women?s final match, and Stjazhkina, Olga (wg RUS 2337), a participant of the World Championship, was beaten by a non-participant Rubzova, Tatiana (wg RUS 2284) who had won the title of the Women?s Blitz Champion of St.Petersburg several times already. So chess was over for that year. Everybody got bear, and winners got also prizes.

Genrikh Chepukaitis