Kramnik, Rublevsky, Morozevich victorious, Rublevsky leads

58th Russian Championship Superfinal

The final stage of the Russian Championship is taking place from December 19-30, 2005, in Moscow, with rounds starting each day at 15:00h local time. It is a 12 player round robin, with time controls of 100/40, then 50/20, 10/rest, with a 30 seconds increment from move one. The total prize fund is US $130,000, with $40,000 going to the winner

Round five report

Jakovenko vs Svidler and Khalifman vs Dreev were short draws. Zvjaginsev pushed hard against Bareev for 59 moves, but the game also ended in a draw. Rublevsky answered Motylev's Petroff with some nice tactics (figure out why Black cannot take the hanging rook with check on move 24) and then outplayed him in a rook ending to take the sole lead in this tournament.

The tournament leader: Sergei Rublevsky [photo F.Agterdenbos]

Two other games were interesting, instructive and – entertaining.

Tomashevsky,E (2564) - Kramnik,V (2739) [A11]
ch-RUS Superfinal Moscow RUS (5), 23.12.2005
1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 c6 3.e3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.b3 Nbd7 6.Bb2 Bd6 7.Qc2 0-0 8.h3 b6 9.g4 Bb7 10.g5 Ne8 11.h4 f5 12.Nd4 Qe7 13.Bg2 Rc8 14.f4 Bc5 15.Nce2 Nd6 16.Nf3 dxc4

17.h5. The 18-year-old Tomashevsky, brave lad, goes on the attack against the classical chess world champion. The idea is to open the long a1-h8 diagonal and finish Black off with the bishop and queen. 17...Bb4 18.h6 g6. Now the bare diagonal looks pretty ominous and one wonders what Black plans to do about it. 19.0-0 cxb3 20.axb3 a5 21.Rad1 c5 22.Ba1.

White has prepared to set up a battery on the diagonal. Black's response is to uncastle! 22...Kf7. Now if 23.Qb2 Black simply plays 23...Rg8. 23.d3 Ke8 24.Nc3 b5 25.Na2 Ba3 26.Qd2 (26.Bg7 Rg8 and 27.Qd2 or 27.Nc3 looked more promising) 26...b4 27.Nc1.

Kramnik has made the dangerous diagonal inaccessible for the black battery. So what does he do now? Recastle! 27...Kf7 28.Ne2 Kg8. Do not tell us there is no humour in chess. 29.Ne1 Bd5 30.Nc2 Bxg2 31.Kxg2 e5 32.Nxa3 bxa3 33.Qc3 Nf7 34.Ng3 Nb6 35.e4 fxe4 36.dxe4 c4 37.fxe5.

Black has been living somewhat on the edge, with a mate in one on g7 looming for a while behind the piece on e5. Now the threat is especially acute: 38.e6 would lead to immediate victory for White. Black has a very nice counter, which Kramnik probably missed in his time trouble: 37...Qb4 38.e6 Qxc3 39.exf7+ Rxf7 40.Bxc3 Rxf1 41.Rxf1 cxb3. Of course White had alternatives, like 38.Qxb3 or 39.Bxc3, sot things are not so clear. In any event Kramnik played 37...cxb3, which was good enough: 38.Qxb3 Nc4 39.e6 Qxe6 40.Rf6 Qe7 41.Rdf1 Qb4. After a good, long thought Tomashevsky resigned. 0-1

Volkov,Sergey (2614) - Morozevich,A (2707) [E46]
ch-RUS Superfinal Moscow RUS (5), 23.12.2005
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 0-0 5.Nge2 Re8 6.a3 Bf8 7.g3 d5 8.cxd5 exd5 9.Bg2 a5 10.0-0 Na6 11.Bd2 c6 12.Rc1 Nc7 13.Na4 Ne6 14.b4 Ne4 15.Be1 axb4 16.axb4 Nd6 17.Nc5 Nc7 18.Nb3 h5 19.Na5 h4 20.Nf4 hxg3 21.hxg3 Ne6 22.Nd3 Ng5 23.g4 f5 24.Ne5 fxg4 25.Nxg4 Ngf7 26.f4 Bxg4 27.Qxg4 Rxe3 28.f5 Ne4 29.Nxb7 Qf6 30.Rd1 Ra2 31.Nc5 Bxc5 32.bxc5 Ree2 33.Bf3 Rh2 34.Bxe4 dxe4

Black has been attacking vigorously throughout the game, but White is hanging on. That is about to change. 35.Bf2?? Immediate disaster. 35...Qh6. The threat of ...Rh1+ and ...Qh2 is deadly. 36.Qxe4 Re2. The queen is overworked with the defence against the mate, and can be harrassed at will. 37.Qg4 Ng5. Once again threatening the same mate. Morozevich finishes of the opponent with computer-like precision. 38.Qg3 Nh3+ 39.Kxh2 Nxf2+ 40.Kg1 Qh1# 0-1

Current standings

Previous Results

Links

• Official web site of the event
• All games so far in PGN