Russian Championship "Super-Final" Underway
The 65th Russian Chess Championship "Super-Final" is underway in Moscow.
The field comprises the invited players Sergey Karjakin (pictured), Alexander Grischuk, Peter Svidler, Dmitry Jakovenko and Evgeny Alekseev, and five qualifiers from the "Higher League" finals in June.
The 10-player round-robin competition runs from 3-12 August with one rest day on 8 August. Games start at 15:00 local time (11:00 UTC) except the last round which starts 2 hours earlier. The time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves followed by 30 minutes to a finish with a 30 second increment from the start.
The full line-up in Moscow:
| Name | Elo |
| Karjakin, Sergey | 2785 |
| Grischuk, Alexander | 2763 |
| Svidler, Peter | 2749 |
| Jakovenko, Dmitry | 2722 |
| Andreikin, Dmitry | 2715 |
| Vitiugov, Nikita | 2705 |
| Alekseev, Evgeny | 2673 |
| Potkin, Vladimir | 2651 |
| Sjugirov, Sanan | 2635 |
| Dubov, Daniil | 2594 |
.
No draw offers are allowed before the first time control has been reached. In the event of a tie for first place there will be a rapid playoff to decide the title.
The prize fund is 3.85 million roubles (approx 120,000 USD) with the winner receiving 1m roubles (approx 31,000 USD).
The 62nd Russian Women's Chess Championship is also being held at the same time and in the same format.
The women's line-up:
| Name | Elo |
| Kosintseva, Tatiana | 2530 |
| Kosintseva, Nadezhda | 2524 |
| Gunina, Valentina | 2507 |
| Galliamova, Alisa | 2465 |
| Pogonina, Natalija | 2448 |
| Girya, Olga | 2433 |
| Ovod, Evgenija | 2419 |
| Kovanova, Baira | 2408 |
| Ubiennykh, Ekaterina | 2367 |
| Charochkina, Daria | 2353 |
.
Coverage (in Russian) is available at the Russian Chess Federation website, and the standings and links to the games can be found at this page.
In the first round there were wins for Evgeny Alekseev and Dmitry Andreikin in the men's event and top seed Tatiana Kosintseva in the women's event. All other games were drawn.
.
.
.
.
.
