Время публикации: 01.05.2015 11:33 | Последнее обновление: 02.05.2015 10:20

Today in Sochi the participants arrive for the Russian team Championships for men and women. The line-up for Sibir (Novosibirsk) can be regarded as a real sensation: its top two boards are Vladimir Kramnik and Levon Aronian. The team also includes Pavel Maletin, Dmitry Jakovenko, Wang Yue, Anton Korobov, Dmitry Bocharov and Dmitry Kokarev.

It is worth recalling Kramnik's words in his interview on our website in September 2013:

"I can't remember the last time I played for a club. It's not that I am strongly against it, but I don't have the motivation. I don't really identify with any club. Playing for your country is different, you have the identity as a Russian person, you play for Russia. But a club - I don't know, it never quite works for me. Maybe only if the club was very dear to me, the place where I grew up as a chessplayer, then maybe. But today playing for one club, tomorrow for another - I don't find that interesting personally. Frankly, it all seems a bit artificial to me. OK, one season you play for one club, then next year you forget them and move to another, like in football. So in general I don't really go for this. I am always being invited to play for different clubs in various leagues, and also the European Club Cup, but somehow... I am pretty busy anyway and this is not a priority, there is always something else more important. The same thing happened this year. I don't know, maybe sometime I will play, but it doesn't strike me as very interesting..."

See our special page for the teams and other details of the Sochi event.