White Nights - 2000

The Grandmaster party resulted in a victory for two people: a real Grandmaster Kruppa (Ukraine) and the one who does have not this title yet - Mirzoyev, who just has to wait till FIDE will change his shoulder boards.

It was not bad for E. Alexeev as well: he lacked half a point for the Grandmaster title, but he will get a title of IM for sure.

Irina Krush is in 4th place. She showed up with a brilliant result - she got the points enough for IM title - though we assume this is just the first step for this title - she has to play more games.

In the "A" Tournament, the battle was more severe. There are three winners: 14th years old star, 2-times Russian Champion, who is at the moment a citizen of Azerbaijan, Kadir Guseinov, IM - veteran, Vladimir Karasev, and Sergey Sivokho.

The IM boy has forcefully defeated our G. Chepukaitis, Karasev has won the leading Eliseev, and Sivokho has climbed the top with the help of the tsar gift in Round 8: GM Arbakov did not come - we assume he just got ill.

As for the most outstanding result - it is about the weakest tourney - "B" Open: there were a lot of people - almost one hundred, but the result of the winner - Baimler - 8,5 of 9 is impressive.

It's a pity that the show is over - we have to wait for next White Nights - it happens here in St. Petersburg only once a year...