Four decisive games in Moscow
Again, Vladimir Kramnik bounced back from a loss with Black to score a win with White at the Russian Championship Super Final. Thursday he avoided a move repetition and beat Ian Nepomniachchti. After four rounds, Alexander Morozevich and Peter Svidler are sharing the lead as they defeated Artyom Timofeev and Alexander Galkin respectively. Alexander Grischuk scored his first win, against Sergey Karjakin.General info
The Super Final of the 64th Russian Championship for men takes place August 7-15 (rest day on August 12) at the Botvinnik Central Chess Club in Moscow. It's an 8-player, single round-robin. The time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes to finish the game, with 30 seconds per move from move one. Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Morozevich, Sergey Karjakin, Alexander Grischuk, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Peter Svidler, Artyom Timofeev and Alexander Galkin play.Round 4
OK, just one more time - after today we'll try to avoid this topic as it has been discussed too much already. But... if it wasn't clear yet, the players made the point once more on Thursday: there's no crisis in chess, and the many draws in Kazan were mostly the result of the format, not of the game itself, nor of the players. Even Alexander Grischuk, who was the least worried about playing draws in Kazan, is willing to take more risks where it's needed, like in a short round robin such as the Super Final - he played the Pirc against Sergey Karjakin in round 4.Grischuk might have been inspired by Vassily Ivanchuk, who played the same opening in his last two games against Karjakin. However, where the Ukrainian went for 5...0-0 twice, Grischuk preferred the sharper 5...c5. Following Radjabov-Ivanchuk, Monaco 2007 an ending was reached which is probably fine for Black. From there, Karjakin played some inaccurate moves and was slowly outplayed.
'Kazan' was also the theme in Kramnik-Nepomniachtchi, at least during the opening phase. The latter followed Grischuk's recipe against the English (with 1...c5 and 3...e5) but Kramnik must have done some work in this area because he had a nice plus around move 15. At move 25 he came up with a strong exchange sacrifice and kept the initiative in the ending. One inaccuracy by Nepomniachtchi was enough to win another pawn and eventually the game - all well played by Kramnik. Alexander Morozevich also played strongly, for almost the whole game. His opponent Artyom Timofeev misplayed the opening and had to defend a very difficult ending. It didn't work out and in timetrouble White could win either a piece or a healthy pawn. Instead, Morozevich went for a continuation that was much less clear, but it didn't really matter as Timofeev lost on time.Morozevich leads the field together with Peter Svidler, who defeated Alexander Galkin. In an Advance Caro-Kann somehow Galkin got himself into a position where he couldn't find a single plan, and instead started to move his king back and forth. Svidler had all the time in the world to prepare a decisive bishop sacrifice. Games round 4
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Russian Championship Super Final 2011 | Schedule & results
| Round 1 | 08.08.11 | 13:00 CET | Rest day | 12.08.11 | 13:00 CET | |
| Svidler | 1-0 | Kramnik | ||||
| Karjakin | ½-½ | Morozevich | ||||
| Grischuk | ½-½ | Nepomniachtchi | ||||
| Galkin | ½-½ | Timofeev | ||||
| Round 2 | 09.08.11 | 13:00 CET | Round 5 | 13.08.11 | 13:00 CET | |
| Kramnik | 1-0 | Timofeev | Grischuk | - | Kramnik | |
| Nepomniachtchi | ½-½ | Galkin | Galkin | - | Karjakin | |
| Morozevich | 1-0 | Grischuk | Timofeev | - | Svidler | |
| Svidler | ½-½ | Karjakin | Nepomniachtchi | - | Morozevich | |
| Round 3 | 10.08.11 | 13:00 CET | Round 6 | 14.08.11 | 13:00 CET | |
| Karjakin | 1-0 | Kramnik | Kramnik | - | Morozevich | |
| Grischuk | ½-½ | Svidler | Svidler | - | Nepomniachtchi | |
| Galkin | ½-½ | Morozevich | Karjakin | - | Timofeev | |
| Timofeev | ½-½ | Nepomniachtchi | Grischuk | - | Galkin | |
| Round 4 | 11.08.11 | 13:00 CET | Round 7 | 15.08.11 | 11:00 CET | |
| Kramnik | 1-0 | Nepomniachtchi | Galkin | - | Kramnik | |
| Morozevich | 1-0 | Timofeev | Timofeev | - | Grischuk | |
| Svidler | 1-0 | Galkin | Nepomniachtchi | - | Karjakin | |
| Karjakin | 0-1 | Grischuk | Morozevich | - | Svidler |
