Grischuk Joins Leaders At Russian Superfinal
It's anyone's guess who will win the Russian Championship's Superfinal where, near the half-way point, six players are tied for first place. Today, Alexander Grischuk, Dmitry Jakovenko, and Evgeny Tomashevsky all joined the leaders. Alexandra Kosteniuk, who started with 4.0/4, lost today, but she still leads the women section.
With five decisive games in the last two rounds, the drawing percentage has decreased somewhat at the Superfinal in Novosibirsk. A plus one score, however, is still enough to top the leaderboard, and half of the field is on that score!
Jakovenko, whose endgame blunder was mentioned in the previous report, made an excellent comeback with two straight wins. After beating Ernesto Inarkiev as Black in a Berlin endgame, he defeated Dmitry Bocharov in a Pirc that resembled a King's Indian.
Two straight wins for Dmitry Jakovenko. | Photo Eteri Kublashvili.
Both Tomashevsky and Grischuk joined the leaders today by scoring their first win. The latter played an excellent positional game and made full use of the light squares.
That was a lot of piece shuffling along the light squares! | Photo Eteri Kublashvili.
Tomashevsky showed good endgame technique against Inarkiev, who defended with the Ragozin today. He must have thought that exchanges would simplify his defensive task, but in reality, it only helped White.
This means that Fedoseev, Svidler, Riazantsev, Grischuk, Tomashevsky, and Jakovenko are all on 3.0/5. Anything can happen here!
Russian Championship Superfinal | Round 5 Standings
| # | Name | Fed | Rtg | Perf | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | Pts | SB |
| 1 | Fedoseev, V | 2665 | 2785 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 3.0/5 | 7.00 | ||||||||
| 2 | Svidler, P | 2745 | 2752 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 3.0/5 | 6.75 | ||||||||
| 3 | Riazantsev, A | 2651 | 2742 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 3.0/5 | 6.75 | ||||||||
| 4 | Grischuk, A | 2752 | 2733 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 3.0/5 | 6.50 | ||||||||
| 5 | Tomashevsky, E | 2724 | 2766 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 3.0/5 | 6.25 | ||||||||
| 6 | Jakovenko, D | 2714 | 2743 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 3.0/5 | 5.25 | ||||||||
| 7 | Oparin, G | 2617 | 2679 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 2.5/5 | 6.75 | ||||||||
| 8 | Goganov, A | 2635 | 2683 | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 2.5/5 | 6.25 | ||||||||
| 9 | Kokarev, D | 2636 | 2681 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 2.5/5 | 6.00 | ||||||||
| 10 | Vitiugov, N | 2721 | 2592 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 2.0/5 | |||||||||
| 11 | Bocharov, D | 2611 | 2531 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1.5/5 | |||||||||
| 12 | Inarkiev, E | 2732 | 2480 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1.0/5 |
Things are much different in the women tournament, where Alexandra Kosteniuk is the only leader, on 4.0/5. She won her first four, but today she went down against 2012 champion Natalija Pogonina.
This seems to be the way to play against the tactically strong Kosteniuk: going for a slight and safe advantage. It looked so drawish, but Pogonina showed that the position was much more pleasant for White.
Kosteniuk, still the leader after five rounds. | Photo Eteri Kublashvili.
Valentina Gunina is playing a roller-coaster of a tournament; she hasn't drawn a single game so far. Starting with two losses, she won the next two, but today it didn't look pretty again.
No draws yet for Gunina. | Photo Eteri Kublashvili.
Let's finish with a game that commentator Simon Williams of which will definitely approve. Both Harry the h-pawn and Garry the g-pawn play an important role in White's attack:
Russian Championship Superfinal (Women) | Round 5 Standings
| # | Name | Fed | Rtg | Perf | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | Pts | SB |
| 1 | Kosteniuk, A | 2537 | 2706 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4.0/5 | |||||||||
| 2 | Pogonina, N | 2484 | 2588 | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 3.5/5 | 10.75 | ||||||||
| 3 | Girya, O | 2446 | 2578 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 3.5/5 | 6.00 | ||||||||
| 4 | Charochkina, D | 2366 | 2523 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 3.0/5 | 6.50 | ||||||||
| 5 | Goryachkina, A | 2460 | 2506 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3.0/5 | 6.25 | ||||||||
| 6 | Bodnaruk, A | 2463 | 2511 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3.0/5 | 4.50 | ||||||||
| 7 | Ovod, E | 2362 | 2406 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 2.5/5 | |||||||||
| 8 | Gunina, V | 2535 | 2384 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2.0/5 | 4.50 | ||||||||
| 9 | Pustovoitova, D | 2386 | 2388 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 2.0/5 | 4.50 | ||||||||
| 10 | Galliamova, A | 2450 | 2277 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1.5/5 | |||||||||
| 11 | Kashlinskaya, A | 2462 | 2206 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1.0/5 | 3.25 | ||||||||
| 12 | Ubiennykh, E | 2346 | 2198 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1.0/5 | 1.00 |
The Superfinal of the Russian Championship takes place October 15-27 at the Novosibirsk State Museum of Local History. The total prize fund is nine million rubles (roughly €130,000 or $143,000). This year the winners of both tournaments will also receive a special prize: a Renault Kaptur.
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
Peter's first book The Chess Revolution is out now!
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