Alexey Shirov: I support for players of my generation

One could see one of the best chess players of the world almost regularly at Moscow Open festival. However he is missing in the lists of grand masters. About the incentives of visiting Moscow he told in his interview to Yana Melnikova:

– Alexey, tell us, please, what is the reason of coming to Moscow?
– First of all I came to support my friend Olga Dolgova who plays at women’s tournament. At the same time I decided to meet my relatives and school friends: such opportunity arises not so often. It turned out that Moscow is a good place to have a rest.

– When did you participate in Swiss tournaments for the last time?
– Sometimes I play open tournaments but usually it happens in cases when I am invited by the organizers. These are 2-3 special tournaments: for example, last year I played the championship of Canada; Michael Adams was also playing there, other players were of higher level over 2650.
Of course it’s better to play round tournaments as an element of chance is quite high in Swiss tournaments. On my opinion the draw system nowadays is quite wrong: in one point group the top player is to play the one from mid, and the player from mid – the one from the end of the draw. Thus the Swiss system levels the strength of the game – the higher is the ranking, the better players become your rivals. And the chances to win the tournament for you are as little as for those with lower rankings.

– How it would be better, in your opinion?
– In the far 70th, when there were no computers, Eduard Dubov used a drawing system, which counted “perfomance” on the tournament, and according to that a decision of who with whom should play, was made. Mathematically, this system is more objective: it takes into account, how powerful were your previous competitors.

– How do you like the organization level of Moscow open? Can you notice any advantages and disadvantages?
– I think, the tournament in the whole, is organized well enough. Some participants complained about sultry air in classrooms, but as far as I spend little time in there, I didn’t feel anything. It is more comfortable when a tournament is held in one room, but I understand the difficulties to do so in the university. The most important – is for participants to have a comfortable seat during the game, especially when game is on the electronic board and people all over the World can follow it on-line.

 Can you specify anybody’s game on the festival?
– First of all I will support Bologan and Rublevsky – they are my generation chess players, so they are my persons I can say. I was very sad, when Viktor missed his chance to win playing with Andreikin.  But in the whole, there was nothing unexpected. It’s obvious that Sasikiran leads the race, he’s a high-qualified chess player. By the way, he married recently, it’s a good motivation to win, I think. 

– You became the silver prize winner of the big tournament in Wijk-n-zee.  What was your impression? What do you plan in future?
– In Wijk aan Zee tournament in was an interesting situation: at first I was playing with the second part of the tournament representatives, that’s may be, I scored 5 points out of five 5 possible. And only then I had to fight with all the rest competitor. 
Of course, I can’t be completely pleased with my play, but the games itself were pretty interesting. But I missed something, for example, on-move victory playing with Anand and a great chance to win Kramnik.
I was confused in my feelings. If I was told that I would finished the tournament that way, I’d be very happy. But when it ended, it seemed a failure to play for 2-3 places. But anyway, it was a positive event. And the fact that I lost the first place – a good motivation to compete harder next time.