Veterans match Moscow vs. St.Petersburg, 31.05-02.06.2001

The traditional matches between the teams of Russia's two largest cities are more than a mere tradition. The endless discussion about whose ambitions are more valid began long ago and has been exciting the inhabitants of both metropolises quite seriously. This time a senior team match was held to discover on which side the superiority was. The Moscow team featured many strong players: six grandmasters and several masters. So it looked as if the St.Petersburg winning series might be interrupted. Our team won, however, although with a modest advantage only: the final score was 21.5:18.5, even though grandmasters Vasiukov and Kholmov from Moscow defeated the leaders of the St.Petersburg team. In return, our woman player Shushpanova outplayed Zatulovskaya, the recent Veteran Women's World Champion. Your commentator was the only participant to achieve the absolute result of 2 points out of 2 against grandmaster Averbakh, the author of the fundamental work Endgame. In game one he lost a pawn on the seventh move and spent then much time to save the game but failed. In game two he outplayed his St.Petersburg opponent positionally, but lost on time. Also the vice-president of the St.Petersburg Chess Federation B. Khropov won one game, but then he went to the theatre, firmly convinced that our team would do their best.