The 65th Russian Higher League Championship was held from 16-27 June in Tyumen, Siberia.
The "Higher League" serves as a qualification event for the main Russian Chess Championships in August, where the top players are seeded directly into the event.
The format was an 11-round Swiss with 46 players, and the top five qualified through to the Russian Championships. They were the three players that tied for first with 7½/11 points - Dmitry Andreikin, Daniil Dubov and Nikita Vitiugov, with Sanan Sjugirov and Vladimir Potkin joining them thanks to having the best tie-break scores among the group half a point behind.
One of the qualifiers deserves special mention - Daniil Dubov is just 16 years old, but he was the long-time leader of the competition, only losing his last round game with black to be denied an outright victory!
A name for the future...Daniil Dubov
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The top standings were:
| # |
Name |
Elo |
Pts |
TB |
| 1 |
Andreikin, Dmitry |
2700 |
7.5 |
70.0 |
| 2 |
Dubov, Daniil |
2569 |
7.5 |
69.0 |
| 3 |
Vitiugov, Nikita |
2703 |
7.5 |
68.5 |
| 4 |
Sjugirov, Sanan |
2625 |
7.0 |
70.5 |
| 5 |
Potkin, Vladimir |
2642 |
7.0 |
68.0 |
| 6 |
Alekseev, Evgeny |
2677 |
7.0 |
65.0 |
| 7 |
Demchenko, Anton |
2575 |
7.0 |
62.0 |
| 8 |
Bocharov, Dmitry |
2600 |
6.5 |
69.5 |
| 9 |
Prizant, Jaroslav |
2524 |
6.5 |
67.0 |
| 10 |
Panarin, Mikhail |
2538 |
6.5 |
66.5 |
| 11 |
Grachev, Boris |
2680 |
6.5 |
65.5 |
| 12 |
Timofeev, Artyom |
2641 |
6.5 |
64.0 |
| 13 |
Ovetchkin, Roman |
2501 |
6.5 |
63.5 |
| 14 |
Khairullin, Ildar |
2631 |
6.5 |
62.5 |
| 15 |
Matlakov, Maxim |
2668 |
6.5 |
61.5 |
.
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There was also a women's event in the same format with 32 players taking part which was won by Baira Kovanova with an excellent score of 9/11, a point ahead of second placed Natalia Pogonina.
Baira Kovanova dominated the women's event
The top standings in the women's event:
| # |
Name |
Elo |
Pts |
TB |
| 1 |
Kovanova, Baira |
2391 |
9.0 |
73.0 |
| 2 |
Pogonina, Natalija |
2447 |
8.0 |
73.5 |
| 3 |
Ubiennykh, Ekaterina |
2336 |
7.5 |
71.5 |
| 4 |
Ovod, Evgenija |
2410 |
7.5 |
70.5 |
| 5 |
Girya, Olga |
2414 |
7.0 |
72.5 |
| 6 |
Timofeeva, Ekaterina |
2273 |
7.0 |
71.0 |
| 7 |
Bodnaruk, Anastasia |
2394 |
7.0 |
70.5 |
| 8 |
Vasilevich, Irina |
2375 |
6.5 |
68.0 |
| 9 |
Severiukhina, Zoja |
2337 |
6.5 |
63.5 |
| 10 |
Shadrina, Tatiana |
2359 |
6.0 |
70.0 |
| 11 |
Schepetkova, Margarita |
2181 |
6.0 |
65.5 |
| 12 |
Sukhareva, Evgeniya |
2236 |
6.0 |
58.0 |
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The time control was 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 30 minutes to a finish with a 30 second increment from the start. No draw offers were permitted before move 40.
Games via TWIC. Dubov photo: Chessbase