2010 Russian Championships
The 63rd Russian Chess Championships were held in Moscow from 11-22 December. 20-year old Ian Nepomniachtchi beat Sergey Karjakin in a playoff to take his first Russian title.
The format was a 12-player round robin, with half the field rated over 2700! Five-time champion Peter Svidler lost a crucial game to Nepomniachtchi in round 9, and Karjakin lost his only game in the final round to finish level with Nepomniachtchi on 7/11.
After drawing two rapid games, the result was decided by a sudden-death game which Karjakin failed to win with the white pieces.
The final standings:
| Name | Elo | Pts | |
| 1 | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | 2720 | 7.0 |
| 2 | Karjakin, Sergey | 2760 | 7.0 |
| 3 | Grischuk, Alexander | 2771 | 6.5 |
| 4 | Svidler, Peter | 2722 | 6.5 |
| 5 | Malakhov, Vladimir | 2712 | 5.5 |
| 6 | Vitiugov, Nikita | 2709 | 5.5 |
| 7 | Potkin, Vladimir | 2646 | 5.0 |
| 8 | Jakovenko, Dmitry | 2726 | 5.0 |
| 9 | Kurnosov, Igor | 2676 | 5.0 |
| 10 | Tomashevsky, Evgeny | 2699 | 5.0 |
| 11 | Khismatullin, Denis | 2659 | 4.0 |
| 12 | Zvjaginsev, Vadim | 2676 | 4.0 |
