Gunina, Lysyj, Russian Champions

by Alejandro Ramirez
12/8/2014 – They took very different routes to get there, but Gunina and Lysyj are the new Russian Champions! Gunina recovered from a bad start, played an incredibly topsy-turvy game in the final round against Galliamova, won and took the title. Meanwhile Lysyj led since the early stages of the tournament, played a solid game and became champion. Analysis of a hard-fought last round.

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The Russian Super Final and the Russian Women's Super Finals, are taking place in Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan. The time control of the event is 90 minutes for 40 moves, 30 minutes until the end of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move one. Participants are not allowed to offer a draw until move 40.

Final Round

Round 09
Grachev, Boris 2669
½-½
Lysyj, Igor 2686
Khismatullin, Denis 2679
½-½
Jakovenko, Dmitry 2745
Nepomniachtchi, Ian 2714
0-1
Vitiugov, Nikita 2738
Morozevich, Alexander 2724
½-½
Karjakin, Sergey 2770
Svidler, Peter 2743
1-0
Zvjaginsev, Vadim 2655

The decisive round saw draws in the most important games. Grachev tried to press a small advantage against Lysyj, but the new Russian Champion defended without problems and obtained his draw. Jakovenko certainly tried to beat Khismatullin, but after some small fireworks White was able to keep a draw.

Nepomniachtchi was destroyed by Vitiugov in a model game of the Poisoned Pawn French.

Morozevich and Karjakin played a surprisingly uneventful game, while Zvjaginsev's sacrifices against Svidler were too optimistic and Svidler finished the tournament with a win.

Replay Round Nine

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Women's Section

Round 09
Galliamova, Alisa 2471
0-1
Gunina, Valentina 2522
Bodnaruk, Anastasia 2411
1-0
Girya, Olga 2457
Goryachkina, Aleksandra 2438
½-½
Kovalesvkaya, Ekaterina 2439
Gritsayeva, Oksana 2335
1-0
Kosteniuk, Alexandra 2541
Pogonina, Natalja 2480
0-1
Kashlinskaya, Alina 2411

It all boiled down to one game: the match of the leaders between Galliamova and Gunina. The evaluation pendulum swung wildly from one side to another after many, many, many blunders in the game. At the end of the day, as the great Dr. Tarrasch would say, The winner of the game is the player who makes the next-to-last mistake, and that was the new Russian Champion, Valentina Gunina.

Bodnaruk had a worse position against Girya, but Black overpressed the endgame and the tables turned. White won a nice endgame proving again why bishops are so powerful.

Kovalevskaya again tried her own unique brand of Benko Gambit, but with more success than last time. At the end she was better and her decision to force a perpetual was probably a little premature.

Gritsayeva annihilated Kosteniuk with a powerful attack on the queenside. The highest rated woman in Russia lost 12 points this tournament and was never in contention of the title, while Gritsayeva scored a full point in the last round but still finished last.

Finally Pogonina was unable to defend a pretty uncomfortable endgame against Kashlinskaya.

Replay Round Nine

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Tomorrow we will bring you a pictorial report with the closing ceremony from Kazan.

Information and pictures provided by Etery Kublashvili

Links

The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

Grandmaster Alejandro Ramirez has been playing tournament chess since 1998. His accomplishments include qualifying for the 2004 and 2013 World Cups as well as playing for Costa Rica in the 2002, 2004 and 2008 Olympiads. He currently has a rating of 2583 and is author of a number of popular and critically acclaimed ChessBase-DVDs.

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