Teenagers Continue To Lead At Superfinal

Two teenagers are doing great at the 68th Russian Championship Superfinal in Chita. Both 17-year-old GM Vladislav Artemiev and 16-year-old WGM Aleksandra Goryachkina are in shared first place.

The open group sees a three-way tie for first place: Artemiev, Nikita Vitiugov and Evgeny Tomashevsky are on 4.0/6. Goryachkina shares first place in the women's section, on 4.5 points, with GM Alexandra Kosteniuk.

Round five saw just one decisive result and five draws. One of these draws was a great battle actually, so we'll look at both.

GM Dejan Bojkov annotated Ivan Bukavshin's win over Ildar Khairullin for us, which saw a typical middlegame with hanging pawns.

White managed to provoke the advance of one pawn, made use of the square that came available, and kept on playing very instructive chess, finishing off with a tactic. Sounds like a Karpov game!

Annotations by GM Dejan Bojkov

 An excellent strategical game by Bukavshin. | All photos by Eteri Kublashvili & Vladimir Barsky.

Dmitry Jakovenko and Nikita Vitiugov played the longest game of the round. Their Closed Catalan was similar to Caruana-Giri, Shamkir 2015 but Vitiugov's setup made a more solid impression. 

White nevertheless retained a slight edge thanks to that little hero on a6. It could have been a real thorn in the flesh if Jakovenko hadn't missed a big chance on move 30,  based on exactly that pawn! The final phase, with rook vs four pawns, was quite interesting as well.

Round six was a good day for St. Petersburg with victories for both Nikita Vitiugov and Peter Svidler. Showing fantastic endgame technique, Vitiugov joined the two leaders, Artemiev and Tomashevsky. More proof that opposite-colored bishops are much less drawish with rooks on the board:

Vitiugov joined the leaders before the rest day.

Svidler is back to 50 percent after a good win against Igor Lysyj. The game started off as a typical King's Indian Attack, but instead of pushing, Svidler decided to trade his e-pawn. Combined with an early a2-a4, White basically tries to “punish” Black for his early queenside expansion.

White simply started tripling on the a-file, and Black's counterplay didn't come off the ground. A good game by Svidler, who seemed in control from start to finish.

Peter Svidler: back on track.

Dubov-Jakovenko was a true disaster for the youngest of the two. Dubov built up a winning attack, failed to deliver the decisive blow before the time control, and then probably suffered from too much disappointment that influenced his chess negatively.

2015 Superfinal | Round 6 Standings

#	Name	Rtg	Perf	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	Pts	SB
1	Vitiugov,N	2719	2824		½	½	½	½		1					1	4.0/6	12.50
2	Artemiev,V	2671	2801	½					½	½	½	1	1			4.0/6	10.75
3	Tomashevsky,E	2747	2804	½			½				½		½	1	1	4.0/6	10.00
4	Jakovenko,D	2759	2755	½		½			½		1			½	½	3.5/6	10.00
5	Karjakin,S	2753	2727	½							½	½	½	½	1	3.5/6	8.50
6	Svidler,P	2739	2678		½		½					½	½	1	0	3.0/6	8.00
7	Bukavshin,I	2655	2672	0	½						½	1	½	½		3.0/6	7.75
8	Dubov,D	2654	2650		½	½	0	½		½		½				2.5/6	8.50
9	Khairullin,I	2662	2630		0			½	½	0	½		1			2.5/6	6.50
10	Motylev,A	2658	2585		0	½		½	½	½		0				2.0/6	6.75
11	Lysyj,I	2673	2596			0	½	½	0	½					½	2.0/6	6.00
12	Khismatullin,D	2642	2612	0		0	½	0	1					½		2.0/6	5.75

In the women's section, two Alexandras are tied for first place: Goryachkina and Kosteniuk. The ex-world champion joined the teenager by beating Alina Kashlinskaya, who made a losing move in a position where she had a winning move:

Kosteniuk shares the lead after six rounds.

Valentina Gunina is Russia's highest-rated female player, but only by one Elo point. On Friday she made clear who is the boss in her game with Katerina Lagno, who is playing her first Superfinal after switching federations from Ukraine.

Not the best day for Katya Lagno.

Saturday is a rest day. Five more rounds will be played, starting at 15:00 local time (10:00 Moscow, 08:00 London, 03:00 New York, midnight Los Angeles). Chess.com is streaming the official live commentary of all rounds at www.chess.com/tv, with GM Evgenij Miroshnichenko and WGM Anna Burtasova. Photos by Eteri Kublashvili & Vladimir Barsky. Games via TWIC