Kenya paired against powerhouse Russia in RD 1

Kenya faces Russia 5 in RD 5. Start time is today 3pm Kenya time. The encounter should prove a very tough challenge for Kenya as the Russia 5 team consists largely of juniors between the ages of 13-20 years who are on the upward swing and have been practising as recently as 2 weeks back in strong open tournaments in Western Europe. Russia 5 team line up is as follows:

1 IM Potapov Pavel 2464 RUS - AGE 20 Years
2 FM Kopylov Alexander A 2438 RUS - AGE 18 Years
3 Savitskiy Sergey 2373 RUS - AGE 15 Years
4 CM Yuffa Daniil 2235 RUS - AGE 13 Years
5 GM Prokopchuk Evgeny 2522 RUS (reserve) - AGE 32 years

The 13 year old Russian on Board 4 is an intriguing phenomenon. He started playing internationally 3 years ago and is on an upward swing. From his recent performance in the Czech International Open held only this month (which means he has had good warm up) the average rating of his opponents was ELO 2362 and he beat or drew with the following calibre of players:

FM Marcel Jorczik Elo 2389 (Beaten by Yuffa)
FM Manfred Heidrich Elo 2329 (Drew with Yuffa)
IM Atanu Lahiri Elo 2353 (Beaten by Yuffa)
FM Jiri Nun Elo 2362 (Drew with Yuffa)


Yuffa Daniil on the right in deep thought. Kenya Board 4 will be
taking on this young russian terror today at 3pm Kenya time.

It appears Yuffa's Elo rating (which jumped up by something like 50 plus elo points at the Czech International Open) of 2235 maybe misleading as he is playing better than that currently.

Fascinating battle in prospect and the Kenyan contingent must be feeling very privileged to be playing a Russian team on their homeground.