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Grischuk Joins Leaders At Russian Superfinal

Grischuk Joins Leaders At Russian Superfinal

PeterDoggers
| 7 | Chess Event Coverage

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. 


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