Russian Championship Superfinal R6: Vitiugov In The Lead

GM Nikita Vitiugov is the sole leader at the Russian Championship Superfinal on the rest day, after six rounds. In the women's section, there's a three-way tie among GM Valentina Gunina, IM Evgenija Ovod, and IM Polina Shuvalova.

This year's Russian Championship Superfinal takes place in Ufa, a city with about a million residents located to the west of the southern Ural Mountains, roughly in between Samara and Chelyabinsk. Although it's still a very strong tournament, lots of big names are missing, such as the eight-time champion GM Peter Svidler but also e.g. GMs Alexander Grischuk, Sergey Karjakin, Vladislav Artemiev, and Daniil Dubov.

Veteran chess journalist Leonard Barden recently speculated that there's a link to the upcoming world championship match: "The implication is that some at least of the missing names are toiling away at Nepomniachtchi’s training camp, seeking out opening novelties or probing for weaknesses in the Norwegian’s repertoire."

However, there is nonetheless a special name in the field: that of GM Aleksandra Goryachkina, the first woman ever to qualify for the open section of the Russian Championship Superfinal. The 23-year-old grandmaster from Orsk had a dream start: after a draw as Black in the first round she defeated GM Alexander Motylev with the white pieces the next day.

Afterward, she said that her opponent did not seem to be well prepared in the opening as he spent some time thinking, although she played 11. Rfe1 twice before in recent months.

She knew that 14...Bb4 is not the strongest move and geared the game towards the structure with a long-term positional pressure for White.

At that point, Goryachkina was concise about her perspectives and plans: "Everyone is so strong. I can think only about my next game."

Goryachkina lost the next day to GM Kirill Alekseenko but with her three draws in the subsequent rounds, including against the tournament leader, she is still on a 50 percent score.

That tournament leader is Vitiugov, who scored a solid, unbeaten plus two before the rest day. Besides four draws, the St. Petersburg resident beat 2021 World Cup semifinalist GM Vladimir Fedoseev and also 2013 World Cup finalist GM Dmitry Andreikin.

Again, we have that game with a few remarks from the winner:

Round 6 standings

Also in the women's section, anything is possible in the remaining five rounds. The three leaders are on a 4.5/6 score and in fact a point ahead of the pack. Also, all three remained unbeaten, thus far.

Gunina is always good for a few spectacular games, such as her win in round five with the black pieces:

Round 6 standings

Yury Solomatin assisted with this report.