History of Tornament
Novgorod is one of the oldest Russian cities, but up to now it has hardly ever
appeared on the chess map. Even in Russia, it is often confused with Nizhny
Novgorod, the industrial giant on the Volga. Situated a hundred miles south of
St. Petersburg, it is a small city by present standards. Yet it is appreciably
older than Moscow and, nine centuries ago, was, along with Kiev, one of the
centers of Eastern Slavic civilization. For a long time Novgorod remained a
strong and democratic trading republic, and it was only about four centuries
ago that it ceded its influence to become part of Muscovy.
Small wonder that a city with such a history has long attracted archeologists
(incidentally, excavations have revealed that as early as the 12th and 13th
century the Novgorodians played chess!). The number of nearly millenium - old
Christian historical relics there is truly mind - boggling. Putting these
treasures to use is inconceivable without developing the touvist industry, and
a couple of years ago the Austrian firm Marco Polo built the Beresta Palace
hotel there, with standards of service (and prices!) corresponding to the
highest European class. But such a hotel needs wealthy foreign tourists, and
this suggested to local businessmen and politicians the idea of staging a
chess supertournament as an effective advertisement (as might be expected,
there proved to be quite ardent chess fans among the leaders).
The Novgorodians decided to hold their tournament under the aegis of the PCA,
and Gary Kasparov responded to their suggestion very promtly. An optimal
formula for the contest was soon worked out: six grandmasters, each playing
the others twice. Nigel Short needed no persuading to accept an invitation.
But who would the others be? In March, the world champion held preliminary
talks with several of the competitovs at the Linares tournament. Gata Kamsky
and Alexey Shirov accepted at once, soon followed by Vasily Ivanchuk.
Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik seemed disinclined to participate,
citing the upcoming Candidates' Matches, but added that their refusal was not
final and that everything depended on the outcome of those matches.
Kasparov did not speak to Karpov. But some time later the Novgorodians looked
up the exchampion in Moscow. However, all the efforts of their impressive
delegation were to no avail: Karpov would not accept the invitation.
Five slots now appeared filled, but suddenly - literally at the last moment -
Kamsky upset all the arrangements! To be sure, his unexpected flimsy excuse (a
supposedly incorrectly computed PCA rating) could be attributed to fatigue
after his match with Anand. But was that all? His sensational victory had
elevated the American to unprecedented fame, and, perhaps, he simply did not
want to jeopardize his new image... Fortunately, Kramnik did not go back on
his promise (to compete in the event of a loss in India). And the sixth
competitor was Evgeny Bareyev, invited at the last moment. Thus, for the first
time in the history of chess, a tournament that had cleared the 2700 mark
achieved the 19th category!
Results of Tournament in 1994
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| Players | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |Points|Place|
|-------------------------|---|---|---|---|---|---|------|-----|
| 1. G. Kasparov (Russia) | |= =|1 =|1 =|1 =|= 1| 7 | 1-2 |
|-------------------------|---|---|---|---|---|---|------|-----|
| 2. V. Ivanchuk (Ukraine)|0 =| |1 =|1 =|= =|1 1| 7 | 1-2 |
|-------------------------|---|---|---|---|---|---|------|-----|
| 3. V. Kramnik (Russia) |0 =|0 =| |= 1|1 =|1 0| 5 | 3 |
|-------------------------|---|---|---|---|---|---|------|-----|
| 4. A. Shirov (Latvia) |0 =|0 =|= 0| |= =|1 =| 4 | 4-5 |
|-------------------------|---|---|---|---|---|---|------|-----|
| 5. N. Short (England) |0 =|= =|0 =|= =| |= =| 4 | 4-5 |
|-------------------------|---|---|---|---|---|---|------|-----|
| 6. E. Bareyev (Russia) |= 0|0 0|0 1|0 1|= =| | 3 | 6 |
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