The Finals of Russian Championship just finished and the champion is Timur Sankin, who defeated the strongest player in the championship Alexander Dinerstein 3dan professional. I decided to do an interview again with a young star who took the third place Viacheslav Kaymin.
Q: How was the organization of the tournament in your opinion?
A: The tournament was well organized, we played in a really nice room. All 45 games were broadcasted and most players, including me, liked it. The minus is that the tournament did not have much advertising so not many people learned about these finals, no news.
Q: Is it your first time to qualify for the finals?
A: It is my third time to play in the finals, 2015 I got 7th place and 2017 I got 5th place.
Q: You got pretty good results, are you happy?
A: I like my results pretty much, I managed to beat really strong players: Timur, Grisha, Kim. However, I still think I could have done better. In my game against Alexander I had many chances, but I lost the game in yose and I think in the first 2 rounds of the tournament I was not concentrated enough, I could play it better. Anyway the third place is a very good result for me, especially after losing three games in the first 4 rounds. I am not sure if I can repeat such performance any time soon. Three top Russian players did not take part – Ilya, Anton and Igor. This could explain why did I get so high as well. I hope to keep getting such results in the next years !
Q: This year the champion is Timur Sankin, was it unexpected?
A: Alexander Dinerstein is strong, but I cannot call him undisputed leader of Russian Go like Ilya for example. Also he is doing many experiments in his games.. Young guys are catching up.
Q: Timur is not that young, isn’t he?
A: He is 33 years old if I am not wrong. Timur is in very good shape, most players noticed it. Anton watched his games from Japanese Ambassador Cup and he told me that he was convinced that Timur is playing quite strong these months.
Q: Is he studying with AI?
A: I think he studied a bit with Leela, but not much, it might better to ask him to make sure.
Q: Which of the games were most exciting to you?
A: Two longest games that I had were with Alexander and with Grisha. Both games were decided in the endgame, however, only one of them I got to win. All other games were much shorter, most of the time because of levels difference.
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