Russian Superfinal: three decided games

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 nine report

Khalifman-Rublevsky: Alexander Khalifman was apparently in a fighting mood today, playing a sharp line of the Sicilian Taimanov against Sergei Rublevsky, to whom he has never lost a game.

Khalifman,A (2653) - Rublevsky,S (2652) [B46]
ch-RUS Superfinal Moscow RUS (9), 28.12.2005
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 Nf6 7.f4. A declaration of war. 7...Bb4 8.Bd3N Qb6 9.0-0 Bc5 10.Na4 Bxd4 11.Nxb6 Bxe3+ 12.Kh1 Bxb6 13.e5 Nd5 14.Qe1.

White has a queen for a bishop and two knights. The position looks promising and exciting for White, but oftentimes the three pieces can become stronger than the queen. Something obviously set alarm bells ringing and, with hundreds of Fritzes on Playchess screaming for him to play on, Khalifman offered a draw. Rublevsky, who is a point ahead of everybody, can afford to coast to victory, and so he accepted the offer. ½-½.

Bareev-Svidler: Evgeny Bareev did not seem demoralised by yesterday's loss and played aggressively against Peter Svidler's Gruenfeld Russian. For sixteen moves the two followed Lputian-Kalantarian, Yerevan 1995, when Black deviated but got an ugly position. Bareev was able to work his e-pawn well into the enemy defences and then use it to clinch victory.

Bareev,E (2675) - Svidler,P (2740) [D97]
ch-RUS Superfinal Moscow RUS (9), 28.12.2005
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Qb3 dxc4 6.Qxc4 0-0 7.e4 Na6 8.Be2 c5 9.d5 e6 10.0-0 exd5 11.exd5 Nb4 12.Rd1 b6 13.Bg5 h6 14.Bxf6 Bxf6 15.Rd2 Ba6 16.Qb3 Bxe2N [16...Qd7 17.Bxa6 Nxa6 18.Re1 Rfe8 19.Rde2 Rxe2 20.Rxe2 Nc7 21.Ne5 Bxe5 22.Rxe5 Re8 23.f4 Kg7 24.h3 f6 25.Rxe8 Nxe8 26.Qb5 Qe7 27.Kf2 Nd6 28.Qd3 ½-½ Lputian,S (2585)-Kalantarian,N (2495)/Yerevan 1995] 17.Nxe2 Qd7 18.Qc4 Rfe8 19.Rad1 a5 20.Nc3 Na6 21.d6 Nb4 22.a3 Bxc3 23.bxc3 Nc6 24.Rd5 Re6 25.h3 Rae8 26.Qb3 Rb8 27.a4 Rb7 28.Qc4 Kg7 29.Qf4 Rb8 30.Qc4 Rb7 31.Qa2 Qd8.

Black has just moved his queen to the back rank, possibly hoping to play ...Rd7, after which his situation would be much more relaxed. Unfortunately White has 32.d7! Ne7 33.R5d3 Ng8 34.c4 Ne7 35.Qb2+ Kh7 36.Ne5 Kg8 37.Rd6 1-0.

Jakovenko-Kramnik: Dmitry Jakovenko was faced with a Kramnik Petroff he knew he would not be able to break, and so agreed to an 18-move draw. Vladimir Kramnik seems to have made his peace with a 50% score.

Morozevich-Dreev: The erratic Alexander Morozevich was in good form today, against a Caro Kann Advanced Variation played by Alexey Dreev. After 24 moves in which only two knights had come off the board the position suddenly opened up and White ended a pawn up, with strong passers on the a and d-files to keep Black under pressure.

Morozevich,A (2707) - Dreev,A (2694) [B12]
ch-RUS Superfinal Moscow RUS (9), 28.12.2005
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Nf3 e6 5.Be2 Nd7 6.0-0 Bg6 7.c3 a6 8.Nbd2 Nh6 9.g3 Be7 10.Nb3 Nf5 11.g4 Nh4 12.Nxh4 Bxh4 13.f4 f5 14.Bd3 Be7 15.Be3 0-0 16.h3 b5 17.Qe2 Qe8 18.Rad1 Rc8 19.Qg2 Rc7 20.Nc1 Nb6 21.Ne2 Bd8 22.Bc1 Nc8 23.b3 Be7 24.Kh1 c5 25.gxf5 exf5 26.c4 dxc4 27.bxc4 cxd4 28.cxb5 Bc5 29.bxa6 Nb6 30.Bc2 Qc8 31.Bb3+ Kh8 32.Bb2 Be8 33.Kh2 Bc6 34.Qg3 Bb5 35.Rfe1 d3 36.Nd4 Bc4 37.e6 Re7

38.Rg1 looked good in this position, but Morozevich had another decisive line at his disposal: 38.Rxd3 Bxd3 39.Qxd3 Qc7 40.Re5 Rd8 41.Qxf5 Bb4 42.Nf3 1-0.

Volkov-Tomashevsky: Sergey Volkov has lost five games in this tournament, one of them yesterday with a traumatic blunder. Today Volkov's companion at the bottom of the table, Evgeny Tomashevsky, had a similar lapse and gave Sergey his second win in the Superfinal.

Volkov,Sergey (2614) - Tomashevsky,E (2564) [E20]
ch-RUS Superfinal Moscow RUS (9), 28.12.2005
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.f3 c5 5.d5 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Qa5 7.Bd2 d6 8.e4 Nbd7 9.Ne2 Ne5 10.Ng3 Bd7 11.a4 h5 12.h4 0-0-0 13.Be2 Ng6 14.Nf1 Kb8 15.Qc2 Ka8 16.Ra2 Rb8 17.Ne3 Rhe8 18.Kd1 Ne7 19.Kc1 Nfg8 20.Bd3 Nh6 21.Kb2 Ng6 22.Ka1 Rf8 23.Nf1 Ng8 24.Ng3 Nf6 25.Be2 Rh8 26.Nf1 Rhf8 27.Ne3 Ne7 28.Be1 e5 29.g3 Nfg8 30.Bd3 Nh6 31.Rg1 f5 32.exf5 Nhxf5 33.Nd1 Nh6 34.Qe2 Bf5 35.Nf2 Bxd3 36.Qxd3 Qc7 37.Ne4 Qd7 38.Ng5 Rf6 39.Bd2 Nhf5 40.Ne4 Rf7 41.Ng5 Rf6 42.Qe2 Ng6 43.Kb2 Rff8 44.Ka3 Rfe8 45.Qe4 Nf8 46.Qb1 Ne7 47.Rb2 Ng8 48.Bc1 Nf6 49.Re2 b6 50.Rge1 a6 51.Rb2 Qa7 52.Qd3 N8d7 53.Ne6 Nf8 54.Bg5 Nxe6 55.dxe6 Rxe6 56.Reb1 Qc7 57.Qf5 Ree8 58.Bxf6 gxf6 59.Qxh5 Rg8 60.g4.

60...Rh8?? 61.Rxb6! Rxb6. Naturally not 61...Rxh5 62.Rxb8+ Qxb8 63.Rxb8+ Kxb8 64.gxh5; or 62...Ka7 63.R1b7+ Qxb7 64.Rxb7+ Kxb7 65.gxh5, after which White promotes his h-pawn. 62.Qxh8+ Ka7 63.Rxb6 and the black position falls apart: 63...Kxb6 64.Qe8 Qh7 65.Qb8+ 1-0.

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