Svidler in sole lead at Russian Championship

PeterDoggers

Updated: Sep 6, 2011, 1:34 AM | 0 | Chess Event Coverage

Peter Svidler has excellent chances to win his 6th Russian title. With two rounds to go, the grandmaster from St. Petersburg is a full point ahead of the rest of the field in Moscow. In the 5th round he beat Artyom Timofeev, while co-leader Alexander Morozevich lost to Ian Nepomniachtchi.

Peter Svidler | Photo © Vladimir Barsky, Russian Chess Federation

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 5

The fifth round of the Super Final was one full of drama. Even the quick draw between Alexander Grischuk and Vladimir Kramnik was interesting! Would the former World Champion take revenge for his lost Candidates match? Would he take risks again, after losing twice with the black pieces?

As so often, Kramnik showed impressive opening preparation. He chose the Vienna, and followed a game by his former second Loek van Wely for sixteen moves. By then, Grischuk had already spent about one and a half hours on the clock. His 17th move was a novelty and seeing his time ticking away, he started shuffling the rook to d2 and back and again. Kramnik then went for a long think, but eventually accepted the silent draw offer.

Grischuk vs Kramnik, meeting each other for the first time after Kazan

Ian Nepomniachtchi is, we shouldn't forget, still the reigning Russian Champion. Thus far he had drawn three games, and lost one, to Kramnik. In the fifth round he scored his first win, against Alexander Morozevich. In a French Rubinstein the players quickly reached an ending where white had an isolated d-pawn, but more active pieces. It should definitely have ended in a draw. However, after the first time control Morozevich somehow managed to spoil it. With some inaccurate moves he got himself into trouble, although it looks like it was only really lost after move 50.

Alexander Morozevich spoils an ending and loses to Ian Nepomniachtchi

The other leader, Peter Svidler, profited optimally. He and Artyom Timofeev had been playing an interesting Ruy Lopez (the 3...a6 4.Ba4 Nge7 line) which was about equal for most of the game. At move 28 both players missed a tactic that would have led to a better ending for White. Then, from move 30 on Timofeev just collapsed and in a few moves got his queen trapped.

Peter Svidler beats Artyom Timofeev with the black pieces

In the game Galkin-Karjakin it seemed that the white player was going for a draw from the first move. At top level, the Scotch Four Knights is completely harmless as it quickly leads to a completely equal and rather boring middlegame. The players did reach the first time control, but then they quickly shook hands.

With two rounds to go, Svidler has excellent chances to win his 6th title. However, nothing is decided yet: tomorrow he has white against Nepomniachtchi and in the last round he plays Morozevich with Black.

The tournament leader showing his game in the press room

Games round 5

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	½-½	Kramnik
Nepomniachtchi	½-½	Galkin	Galkin	½-½	Karjakin
Morozevich	1-0	Grischuk	Timofeev	0-1	Svidler
Svidler	½-½	Karjakin	Nepomniachtchi	1-0	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

Russian Championship Super Final 2011 | Round 5 Standings

Links

Peter Doggers

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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