★ Post-Soviet era
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, some 300 million of its people were shocked. Despite all the inadequacies and absurdities of everyday life in the Soviet Union, few could have imagined that the Soviet Union would one day cease to exist. I remember when I was a kid thinking that 2017 would be cool because it would be the centenary celebration of the October Revolution in October 1917. I know it sounds weird today, but it made sense at the time. Years later, I came across a book with a title that perfectly summed up the emotions of the previous generation of Soviets: "Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More."
For chess, the collapse of the Soviet Union led to many unintended consequences. Who would have thought that Uzbekistan would win the silver medal or that the Armenian team would win the bronze medal before the start of the 1992 Olympiad were just the first signs of the dramatic changes that had not yet taken place.
With the fall of the Iron Curtain, a large number of chess players from the former Soviet Union flocked abroad. They were of a high caliber and for the next decade they continued to dominate the chess world.
In addition, Russia is constantly producing new talents. At the 1992 Olympiad, the Russian team brought in what he thought was a young FIDE master, and he turned 17 on the day of the closing ceremony. He is Vladimir Kramnik (born 1975), who scored 8.5 points in nine rounds on the bench. Two years later, at the 1994 Moscow Olympiad, Kramnik had been promoted to second, second only to Kasparov. The Russian team once again won the Orsay team championship. Even more surprising was the bronze medal for the Russian B team, led by Alexander Morozevich (born 1977), made up entirely of young chess players. Russia's future seems bright. In fact, Russia's hegemony lasted for a full decade, with the Russian team winning all the Olympiad titles from 1992 to 2002.
However, since playing in 2004, although Russia has participated in every Olympiad, and it is the team with the highest rating, it has not won a gold medal again. The probability of this happening is so small that they themselves cannot come up with any reasonable explanation.
Personally, I'm really weird... Boston Red Sox! I know, it's crazy, but listen to me, from 1918 to 2004, the spell that hung over this American baseball team lasted for 86 years! You can find articles about it on Wikipedia, so it must be real. The Boston Red Sox eventually won the World Series in 2004, but that curse isn't going away, right? It must have been passed on to the Russian chess team in some way.
I just hope that this spell does not last on the Russian team for another 70 years, and the Orsay gold medal will come soon!
★ Vladimir Kramnik
The heroes of the 1992 Orsay quickly grew into the world's top chess players. In 1995, Cramnik won his first super competition in Dortmund (he went on to win a total of ten Dortmund titles). In 1996, Cramnik climbed to the top of the world, becoming the youngest player in history to score first in the class. You know, from 1986 to 2006, there was only one time when the first place in the rankings did not belong to Kasparov.
Kasparov and Kramnik inevitably became rivals. In the 2000 World Championship, Kramnik became the world champion with 2 wins and 13 victories over Kasparov! Kasparov has never been able to find the antidote to Kramnik's secret weapon, the Defense of Berlin. No wonder, until now, the white side still can't find the antidote!
Other contributions to "world peace" by Kramnik included a detailed dismantling of Russian and Slavic defenses for mandatory waschi. When Cramnik was white, he also injected new vitality into Catalung's start!
In 2004, Cramnik defeated Hungarian peter Leko in the final set of the World Championships, thus maintaining the world title by drawing and defending the title. In 2006, in a world championship match against Veselin Topalov, Kramnik defended his title again with a quick game plus.
Eventually, in 2007/2008, Cramnik lost the title to Indian chess player Anand in the World Championships, marking the end of an era. Kramnik became the last Russian world champion. This tradition, which began in 1927, was finally broken.
★ Eight crowns
It would be incomplete to tell the history of modern Russian chess without mentioning Peter Svidler (born 1976) and his eight-time All-Russian Championship champion. Svedler won the All-Russian Championship in all formats. In 1994 and 1995 he won the Swiss-made Championship twice. In 1997, he won the Knockout Format Championship. In 2003, he won the Swiss-made Championship again.
Since 2004, the All-Russian Championship has been changed to a super-final format in a round-robin format. Sweedler has accumulated and leveraged his extensive experience in super events. Under this format, Sweedler won the title four more times (in 2008, 2011, 2013 and 2017).
With eight all-Russian championships, Svedler surpassed Botvinnik as the most national champion (Botvinnik won the all-Soviet championship seven times). With the exception of Svedler, no one has won the All-Russian Championship more than twice, and Svedler's record should hold out for many, many years!
Of course, Sweedler has also won many other tournaments, such as the Beal Masters, the Dortmund Super, the Gibraltar Open, the Tilburg Tournament, and the 2011 World Cup. He is also recognized as a Greenfield defense expert and one of the finest chess speakers.
★ The new generation
In the latest Ranking of Russian Chess Players' Grade Points, some of the top five are post-90s. Ian Nepomniachtchi, Sergey Karjakin and Dmitry Andreikin were all born in 1990 (the same year as current world champion Magnus Carlson).
The other two in the top five are the "last of the Mohicans" – Alexander Grischuk and Peter Sveidler. Grishuk still has a chance to qualify for the World Championships, but this is likely to be his last chance.
By far the closest Russian young chess player to the throne is Sergei Karyakin. He drew carlson in the slow chess portion of the 2016 World Championships and eventually lost in the fast game.
Dmitry Andrekin, a two-time Winner of the All-Russian Championship, was shortlisted for the 2014 World Championship Candidates, but has been mediocre ever since.
Among the three players after the 90s, Nepomnyach has the best chance of qualifying for the World Championship. When the 2020 World Championship Candidates Tournament was suspended, Nepo tied for the top spot with Vasher Lagraf. He is certainly eagerly awaiting the resumption of the candidates as he will be one of the favourites for the Carlson Challenger.
Among the younger post-90s players, Vladislav Artemiev, Daniil Dubov and Kirill Alekseenko have made rapid progress. Alexei Yanko was shortlisted for the 2020 World Championship Candidates Tournament for third place at the 2019 FIDE Grand Swiss Competition.
Daniel Dubov has already won the world championship title, albeit only for quick moves. Ademiayev performed well in 2019, winning the Gibraltar Open and then the European Individual Championship.
They may be a few steps away from Carlson, Caruana and other world top players, but they and some of the younger players have the potential to catch up with the world's top players!
Russian chess is constantly advancing! (Translated by Thar)