It is now more than a decade since Russia’s almost unbroken 59-year monopoly of the world chess crown was ended, so Moscow is trying hard to develop new talents who can challenge Norway’s Magnus Carlsen. But its method is controversial, relying on older teenagers and players in their 20s rather than the prodigies who have emerged from other leading chess nations.

After Mikhail Botvinnik won the world championship in 1948, he held the title with short breaks for 15 years and was succeeded by other Soviet and then Russian players – Tigran Petrosian, Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Vlad Kramnik. Only the brilliant surge of Bobby Fischer in 1970-72, which climaxed in Fischer’s victory over Spassky at Reykjavik 1972 in the most famous of all chess matches, disturbed the pattern. Fischer did not play a single competitive game during his three-year reign before defaulting his title to Karpov.

The USSR-Russia hegemony finally ended at Mexico City in 2007, when India’s Vishy Anand won the crown in a tournament then successfully defended it against Kramnik. Anand gave way to Carlsen in 2013, and the Norwegian has stayed No 1 ever since. There was still a moment when Moscow hoped that the old order would be restored. Sergey Karjakin briefly led Carlsen 1-0 in their title match in New York in 2016, and had a fleeting opportunity for 2-0, but he missed it and Carlsen stormed back to keep the title.

Other leading chess nations prefer to place their trust for the future on prodigies who developed their skills as pre-teens and are now already strong grandmasters. India’s Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa is, at 12, the second youngest GM in history. The United States trio of Jeffrey Xiong and Samuel Sevian, both 17, and Awonder Liang, 15, are well established and fast improving GMs, who are regulars in the annual US championship where they cross pawns with Olympiad gold medallists.

Russia’s best juniors do not compare. Vladislav Artemiev is ranked the No 3 junior in the world, but he is already 20. There was a stir early this month when Alexey Sarana, 18, won Russia’s Higher League and so qualified for the main championship where he could take on Karjakin and the eight-time winner Peter Svidler. But Sarana is only No 55 in Russia so still has plenty to prove.

Everything is relative, and Russia’s talent is brilliant compared with England’s. Since Gawain Jones and David Howell emerged 20 years ago, England has not produced a single player with a 2600 rating, the level of the world top 200.

Fide, the global body, ranks England as the No 12 chess nation. This is due to a long-standing sextet of GMs rated 2650+ and ranked in the world top 100 – Michael Adams, Nigel Short, Luke McShane, Matthew Sadler, Jones and Howell. Short is 53 and Adams 46, while Howell at 27 is the youngest, so the seeds for future decline are obvious.

A current thread on the English Chess Forum www.ecforum.org.uk asks: ‘Who is our next Adams?’ The answer at the moment seems to be ‘Nobody’. England has some promising juniors, but all of them seem far from 2650+ potential.

Back in Moscow, there is a heavy responsibility on GM Mikhail Kobalia, the head coach of Russian youth teams. He is still an active player, and qualified from the Higher League with the aid of this brilliancy. White’s early 7 g4!? is interesting, but Black is well in the game until he castles into White’s attack. Sacrificing a bishop and a knight, Kobalia storms the black king.

Mikhail Kobalia v David Paravyan

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 f3 e6 7 g4!? b5 8 a3 h6 9 h4 Be7 10 Be3 Nfd7 11 Bf2 Qc7 12 Qd2 Ne5 13 Be2 Nbd7 14 O-O-O Rb8 15 Rh3 Nc4 16 Qe1 O-O? 17 f4 g6 18 g5 h5 19 Bxh5! gxh5 20 Qe2 b4 21 Nf5! exf5 22 Nd5 Qd8 23 Qxh5 Nde5 24 fxe5 Nxe5 25 Bd4 bxa3 26 Bxe5 dxe5 27 g6 1-0

3576 1...Rh7! stops White’s pawns while Black’s a7 pawn can run. If 2 Rb8+ Ka2 3 Rc8 a5 4 Kxd3 Kb1! 5 Rb8+ Kc1! and wins.