But Ponomariev has not lived up to his extraordinary early promise; and Sergey Karjakin, who had been widely tipped to become world champion, has been thoroughly eclipsed by another former child prodigy, Norway's Magnus Carlsen. It was most unfortunate for Karjakin that Carlsen is just 11 months his junior — one might wait a hundred years for two such talents to emerge.

The biggest chess battle between Russia and Ukraine  goes back to the years between the world wars, when Alexander Alekhine twice defended his world title against the Kiev-born Efim Bogolyubov. In truth these matches, in 1929 and 1934, were very one-sided: Alekhine was clearly the stronger player, a fact recognised by everyone in the chess world except for Bogolyubov himself, whose most striking characteristic was extreme self-confidence. 

Bogolyubov, in fact, was an oaf. In his second match against Alekhine, one of the games was played in Bayreuth, coinciding with a Nazi convention there. The Austrian master Hans Kmoch recalled: "Uniformed Nazis were everywhere, including the dining room where Bogolyubov, [Aaron] Nimzovich and I were seated at a small table. Though Nimzovich was proud of his Jewishness, the sight of all those Nazi uniforms must have been very unsettling. Bogolyubov was so insensitive to the situation that he casually teased Nimzovich by recommending the pork chops."

Bogolyubov's personal crassness should not prevent acknowledgement of his dazzling brilliance at the chessboard. And he had earned the right to a shot at the supreme title, at least on the first occasion. In 1925 he won the great Moscow tournament with remarkable ease, fully two points ahead of the reigning world champion José Capablanca. This was the event which the new Soviet regime put on to demonstrate its determination to bring chess to the masses and to match its own masters against the best in the world: it treated Bogolyubov's victory as one for its political system. So the commissars were furious when the following year Bogolyubov did not return from a tournament in Berlin: he was thereafter regarded as a traitor. Still, Germany was the right place for Bogolyubov. Apparently his only English word was "beer", which he loved — and his colossal consumption of the stuff was less damaging to his performance than vodka eventually was to his rival Alekhine.

Bogolyubov was a regular winner of tournament brilliancy prizes along with his first places; but perhaps his most sparkling effort was an exhibition game against Rudolf Spielmann in Stockholm in 1919.

 

1.e4 (not Bogolyubov’s normal first move, but the players had agreed to test the variation that follows) e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e5 Nfd7 6.h4!? (This was the pawn sacrifice they wanted to investigate) Bxg5 7.hxg5 Qxg5 8.Nh3 Qe7 9.Qg4 g6 10.Nf4 a6 11.0-0-0 c5 12.Qg3 Nb6 13.dxc5 Qxc5 14.Bd3 Qf8 15.Be4!! (Astounding—and completely sound: White threatens to crash through via d5, so Black must capture) dxe4 16.Nxe4 N8d7 17.Qc3 Qe7 18.Nf6+ Nxf6 19.exf6 Qf8 20.Qc7 Nd7 21.Nd5! (The thematic follow-up to White’s 15th) exd5 22.Rhe1+ Ne5 23.Rxe5+ Be6 24.Kb1! (Bogolyubov is alert to the fact that his opponent can still castle: if immediately 24.Rdxd5?? Qh6+ 25.Re3 0-0! and Black’s troubles are behind him) Rd8 25.Rdxd5!! (The only move to win) Rxd5 26.Rxd5 Bxd5 27.Qc8 checkmate. The spectators certainly got their money’s worth.