Russian Ch: Morozevich beats Grischuk, Kramnik recovers

After beating Alexander Grischuk on Tuesday, Alexander Morozevich joined Peter Svidler in the lead at the Russian Championship Super Final. Vladimir Kramnik recovered from his first round loss and defeated Artyom Timofeev.

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 2

Sometimes you need a bit of luck in chess. In the top fight between the Alexanders, or Sachas, Morozevich defeated Candidates finalist Grischuk after the latter blundered in time trouble. The game had started as another Queen's Gambit Declined, in which the theory develops at top speed these days. Morozevich at some point had to burn his bridges at the queenside and go for all or nothing on the kingside. His attack could have been executed more efficiently, so that around move 30, Black's chances were just better. However, then Grischuk missed the subtle 33.Bf1! and it was over.



Vladimir Kramnik played an excellent game against Artyom Timofeev, making clear that there's absolutely no 'down trend' going on as far as his form is concerned. In a Symmetrical English he won the bishop pair at an early stage, but Black's position remained solid. However, getting closer to the time control Timofeev suddenly allowed a king's attack, where up to that point the game had focused on the queenside. With the queen on a1, completely out of play, Black was defenceless.



Nepomniachtchi-Galkin was a great fight that started as a Semi-Tarrasch. With rook and knight against rook and bishop, white went pawn grabbing while Black set his hopes on a single passed a-pawn. The resulting ending was R and three pawns vs RB, which ended in a draw at move 74. The most quiet game was Svidler-Karjakin, where the grandmaster from St. Petersburg again opted for a Reversed King's Indian. (It's hard to call this quiet set-up an 'Attack'!) He had a tiny edge in the ending but his opponent from Moscow had no problems drawing it.

Games round 2

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Pictures © Russian Chess Federation

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	-	Kramnik		Kramnik	-	Morozevich
Grischuk	-	Svidler		Svidler	-	Nepomniachtchi
Galkin	-	Morozevich		Karjakin	-	Timofeev
Timofeev	-	Nepomniachtchi		Grischuk	-	Galkin
Round 4	11.08.11	13:00 CET		Round 7	15.08.11	11:00 CET
Kramnik	-	Nepomniachtchi		Galkin	-	Kramnik
Morozevich	-	Timofeev		Timofeev	-	Grischuk
Svidler	-	Galkin		Nepomniachtchi	-	Karjakin
Karjakin	-	Grischuk		Morozevich	-	Svidler

Russian Championship Super Final 2011 | Round 2 Standings

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