Russian grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi is currently playing a tough match for the world crown with China's Ding Liren. The fifth game will take place on Saturday. While the score is equal — 2:2. But we will fast-forward eight years ago, when the Russian played in the prestigious Aeroflot Open tournament. After seven rounds, the second and third places were shared by Nepomniachtchi and Daniil Dubov, a prominent representative of the new wave of domestic chess. Ivan Bukavshin was in the lead.
A native of Rostov-on-Don eventually dropped to third place. The tournament was won by Nepomniachtchi, who, with equal points, was ahead of Dubov in additional indicators. However, Bukavshin ended in a draw with both Jan and Daniil.
Behind Ivan were well-known masters — Azerbaijani Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Hungarian Richard Rapport, Spaniard Francisco Vallejo, Russians Alexander Khalifman, Ernesto Inarkiev, Vladimir Fedoseev.
Brilliant prospects opened up before the young grandmaster. But suddenly a terrible thing happened — in early 2016, Bukavshin died in his sleep at a training camp near Togliatti.
Ivan Bukavshin was a multiple winner of the European and Russian championships among youths, won major tournaments, sought the right to play at the World Cup and the Superfinal of the Russian Championship. In December 2015, he excelled in the final of the Cup of the country.
A tragic decision
Suddenly and absurdly, another gifted chess player, Yuri Eliseev, passed away in the same year. He was also 20 years old.
A native of Moscow won the championships of Russia and the world for youth, in 2015 he became the champion of the capital among men, and the next season he won the major international tournament Moscow Open. Then Yuri was ahead of Vladislav Artemyev, Nikita Vitiugov and Kirill Alekseenko.
The main reason for the untimely death of the grandmaster was probably a penchant for risk and adventurous adventure. The athlete was fond of parkour. On the night of November 26, he decided to climb from the window of the apartment to the balcony, but fell off and died, falling from a height of the 12th floor.
The death of Yuri was reported by his friend Daniil Dubov. The head coach of the Russian national team Sergei Yanovsky, who knew the grandmaster well, spoke about his extraordinary character. — At the same time, it was completely original: he always looked for unusual ways in everything, such decisions were very characteristic of him. He is one of the most talented young grandmasters in Russia. This is a very heavy loss. He was willing to play for teams for free. The material for him was in second place. He was very fond of the art and beauty of chess.»
Bukavshin and Eliseev passed away in one year. They did not reveal the talent to the end. Russia was left without two bright stars that could give everyone an excellent game for many years to come.