KHANTY-MANSIYSK, Russia, Sept. 20, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Russian grandmaster Peter Svidler, 35, captured the World Cup title on Monday after winning a four-game final against his compatriot Alexander Grischuk. Svidler won the first game and forced a draw in the remaining three.
On the way to the final, Svidler, who is a six-time Russian champion and one of the highest-ranked players in the world, defeated strong competitors — American Gata Kamsky and Urkainian Ruslan Ponomariov. Svidler, who described his World Cup title as "the highest achievement in chess so far" during the press conference in Khanty-Mansyisk, will collect a $96,000 prize and a ticket to the 2012 world championship matches.
Russian chess enthusiasts celebrated Svidler's victory today. The game is still very popular in this country, and Russia holds the No.1 spot on the World Chess Federation's top-10 list, followed by Ukraine. Peter Svidler, who lives in St. Petersburg, is well-liked here, probably because his lifestyle mirrors that of many ordinary Russians: he spends very little time on training compared to some other top-level chess masters, likes music and enjoys going out. Svidler's games are often intuitive, non-conventional and interesting to follow.
Khanty-Mansiysk, an industrial town of 72,000, hosted over 120 world's greatest chess players from 40 countries. Peter Svidler acknowledged the outstanding quality of the tournament: "Many times that I played in Khanty-Mansyisk, I was always impressed by how the tournaments are organized... The chess hall was great, there is room for spectators. And there were live broadcasts. This is an examplary place for playing chess," said Svidler.
Natalia Komarova, the Khanty-Mansyisk region governor, said that the locals were excited to host the tournament: "Chess is extremely popular here. Over 15,000 kids go to chess schools and 42 middle and high schools adopted chess as part of their curriculum. And we are very happy that Khanty-Mansyisk is now well-known to the global chess community — over 1.5 million people visited the tournament's website in the last month."
Website http://chess.ugrasport.com has the scores and records of all games played during the World Cup.