Riazantsev, Kosteniuk Win Russian Superfinal, And A Car
GMs Alexander Riazantsev and Alexandra Kosteniuk are the winners of this year's Russian Championship Superfinal. Kosteniuk claimed the women's title with a round to spare; Riazantsev decided matters today. Both won a Renault Kaptur.
Alexander Riazantsev wins his first national title. | Photo Eteri Kublashvili.
Riazantsev scored the best performance of his career with his final-round victory in Novosibirsk. The 31-year-old grandmaster won the World U12 Championship back in 1997 and the Moscow Championship in 2006. As a player in the SHSM-64 team from Moscow, he won the Russian Team Championship twice.
He is one of the national coaches in Russia, and as a result, he finds little time to play serious chess himself. This year he played a few rapid and blitz events, but his only classical tournament in 2016, besides the Superfinal, was the Higher League.
It was from that tournament that Riazantsev qualified for the Superfinal, together with GMs Grigoriy Oparin, Vladimir Fedoseev, Dmitry Kokarev, and Aleksey Goganov.
We know that he was leading the field after nine rounds. Yesterday, Fedoseev (the day's only winner) caught him in first place. He slowly outplayed Bocharov in a Caro-Kann and kept his cool when his opponent threw everything but the kitchen sink at him.
Fedoseev vs Bocharov in the penultimate round. | Photo Eteri Kublashvili.
In the final round, GM Peter Svidler had Black; therefore the chances for him to win his eighth title were slim. They vanished completely when GM Nikita Vitiugov repeated GM Alexander Grischuk's idea in the Marshall. The players repeated moves almost instantly.
Then it was Grischuk himself who suddenly had chances. His win over Kokarev got him to (virtual) shared first. He used 6.Nb3!? against the Najdorf, which is a recent S.O.S. by IM Jeroen Bosch from New in Chess magazine. What followed was more or less a Dragon Sicilian where Black was OK until he made an odd mistake.
Fedoseev lost his final game to Oparin and dropped out of contention. Riazantsev, who is the main coach of the Russian women's team, took fate into his own hands. He defeated GM Dmitry Jakovenko with the black pieces in an excellent game.
Russian Championship Superfinal | Final Standings
| # | Fed | Name | Rtg | Perf | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | Pts | SB |
| 1 | Riazantsev, A | 2651 | 132 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 7.0/11 | |||
| 2 | Grischuk, A | 2752 | -10 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 6.5/11 | 34.75 | ||
| 3 | Tomashevsky, E | 2724 | 19 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 6.5/11 | 33.50 | ||
| 4 | Svidler, P | 2745 | -35 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 6.0/11 | 32.50 | ||
| 5 | Fedoseev, V | 2665 | 51 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 6.0/11 | 31.25 | ||
| 6 | Goganov, A | 2635 | 53 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 5.5/11 | 30.25 | ||
| 7 | Oparin, G | 2617 | 72 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 5.5/11 | 30.25 | ||
| 8 | Vitiugov, N | 2721 | -40 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 5.5/11 | 28.50 | ||
| 9 | Jakovenko, D | 2714 | -33 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 5.5/11 | 27.75 | ||
| 10 | Inarkiev, E | 2732 | -84 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 5.0/11 | |||
| 11 | Kokarev, D | 2636 | -11 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 4.5/11 | |||
| 12 | Bocharov, D | 2611 | -133 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 2.5/11 |
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk won her tournament in the penultimate round. Already in possession of a 1.5-point lead, she secured the title with yet another win. This is only Kosteniuk's second national title. She won her first in 2005.
Not everything went according to plan in this key game, but in the decisive phase, she was clearly more in control of the complications than her opponent.
Alexandra Kosteniuk won her second national title. | Photo Eteri Kublashvili.
WGM Natalija Pogonina finished in clear second. GM Valentina Gunina eventually tied for fourth place, scoring 6.0/11 without playing a single draw. The same happened to tail-ender WIM Ekaterina Ubiennykh by the way!
Russian Championship Superfinal (Women) | Final Standings
| # | Fed | Name | Rtg | Perf | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | Pts | SB |
| 1 | Kosteniuk,A | 2537 | 108 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 8.5/11 | |||
| 2 | Pogonina,N | 2484 | 50 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7.0/11 | |||
| 3 | Bodnaruk,A | 2463 | 40 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 6.5/11 | |||
| 4 | Charochkina,D | 2366 | 113 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 6.0/11 | 32.25 | ||
| 5 | Girya,O | 2446 | 26 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 6.0/11 | 30.25 | ||
| 6 | Pustovoitova,D | 2386 | 92 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6.0/11 | 27.25 | ||
| 7 | Gunina,V | 2535 | -70 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6.0/11 | 27.00 | ||
| 8 | Ovod,E | 2362 | 86 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 5.5/11 | |||
| 9 | Goryachkina,A | 2460 | -51 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 5.0/11 | |||
| 10 | Galliamova,A | 2450 | -106 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4.0/11 | |||
| 11 | Kashlinskaya,A | 2462 | -154 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | 3.5/11 | |||
| 12 | Ubiennykh,E | 2346 | -157 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2.0/11 |
The Superfinal of the Russian Championship took place October 15-27 at the Novosibirsk State Museum of Local History. The total prize fund was nine million rubles (roughly €130,000 or $143,000).
This year, the winners of both tournaments won a special prize: a Renault Kaptur.
This prize will be awarded at a ceremony on Friday at the Botvinnik Central Chess Club in Moscow. Especially for Kosteniuk, it's an interesting prize, since, according to Chess24, she doesn't have a driver's license yet! Her husband GM Pavel Tregubov probably won't mind taking the steering wheel.
Kosteniuk and Tregubov at the Baku Olympiad.
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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