Alekseev Russian Champion

Evgeny Alekseev is champion of Russia. Just like Dmitry Jakovenko he scored 7,5 out of 11 games in the Superfinal, after which today (Friday) in a playoff it was decided who would win the seriously weakened Russian Championship. Big names such as Kramnik, Morozevich and Grischuk were absent. A good result had lowest seeded Ildar Khairullin (16); during Hoogeveen 2006 he almost lost to yours truly and in Moscow he ended on a nice sixth spot.

The final standings of the regular tournament:

 1. Jakovenko, Dmitry    g  2671  7.5
 2. Alekseev, Evgeny     g  2639  7.5
 3. Inarkiev, Ernesto    g  2628  7.0
 4. Svidler, Peter       g  2750  6.5
 5. Rublevsky, Sergei    g  2688  5.5
 6. Khairullin, Ildar    m  2543  5.5
 7. Tomashevsky, Evgeny  g  2595  5.5
 8. Grigoriants, Sergey  g  2582  5.0
 9. Nepomniachtchi, Ian  m  2545  5.0
10. Khismatullin, Denis  g  2583  5.0
11. Vitiugov, Nikita     m  2596  3.5
12. Najer, Evgeniy       g  2648  2.5

The first game in the (rapid) play-off ended in a draw, and thereafter Alkseev decided the tournament with the white pieces:

Alekseev-Jakovenko Moskou 2006

The outlines of the terribly difficult Zaitsev Variation of the Closed Spanish are still visible. Black's position after the opening wasn't that bad and going for the ending with 27...Qg5 is quite playable. Instead the game saw 27...Rc8? 28.Rxd3 Rc4 29.Qg3 Be4 30.Ne5! and Black did not manage to solve his big problems.

A nice game from the fourth round:

Nepomniachtchi-Rublevsky Moskou 2006

White punishes 20...Ra5? nicely:

21.Nd7! Nh5 22.Bxe7 Nxg3 23.Bb4 Ra7 24.Bc5 Ra5 and now 25.Rxe6! would have won immediately because of the surprising pointe 25...fxe6 26.fxg3 Rd8 (seems winning) 27.Rf1! and it is White who wins. The imposter deceived!

>> replay some attractive games of the Russian Championship