For the second time Evgeni Dragomarezkij becomes a triumphant of the RSSU Veteran Cup – in 2015 he won it for the first time. The victory became a nice gift to the Moscow grandmaster for his 65th anniversary, which he celebrated in January. Evgeni Alekseevich is speaking of his way to success to the official website correspondents.
- Evgeni, hello! Tell us how was this tournament going on for you?
- Exceptionally successfully. I can’t remember the last time when I started the tournament with a 100% result after seven rounds (laughing). In general I tried to play with confidence. Sometimes I used my psychological zest – I was 15-20 minutes late, my opponents started to get nervous and became relaxed. However, several times in my life I punished myself – received a couple of technical losses for being late.
- What games did influence the final result?
- In the sixth round I won over Evgeniy Kalegin – one of my main opponents. He offered a draw before the game, but I refused. In general I waived all the draws during this tournament (laughing). My opponent missed a strong punch and lost. In the seventh round I was playing black with ranking favorite Evgeny Sveshnikov, who was one point behind me. We played a Sicilian defense and I was playing so carefully, was trying not to miss a single thing. At some point Evgeny started to intensify a game but committed a mistake and as a result I managed to win.
In principle, everything was clear at that moment – my main opponents were a point and a half behind me. I should admit, fortune was in it – I was lucky in several games, like the first prize winner!
- Did you have any similar successes in your career?
- In 2014 I occupied the second place in the RSSU Cup, and in 2015 I won the first place, though the participants were much stronger than now. Also I am a twice Champion of Russia in veteran blitz and a silver medalist in fast chess. In general I am more in favor of playing chess with a shorter time control.
- What’s the reason?
- I play chess instinctively: I can find a right move in several seconds. At the same time my opponents can spend more than a minute. Intuition rules in blitz, in my opinion. That’s why I feel advantage over other veterans at short distances.
- What are you plans for the future?
- In February I will go to the Rapid Grand Prix in Serpukhov. Once I won this tournament in spite of 16 grandmasters playing there! I also want to play in the Veteran Championship of Russia – I haven’t been playing in this tournament for five years already. I want to try to qualify to the European and World Veteran Championships. I think, I’m ready to play in the world arena.
- And finally, tell our readers, what else are you engaged with besides chess?
- I’m an insurance agent. I love to sing. Sometimes I give chess lessons, but only individual – it’s very hard to teach in a school with my schedule. Sometimes I read chess lectures about my own inventions.
- Thanks a lot for the conversation!
Questions were asked by Alina Bivol and Eldar Mukhametov.