Rublevsky wins 58th Russian Championship

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 eleven report

The winner: GM Sergei Rublevsky

The 58th Russian Championship was won in the Superfinal stage by GM Sergei Rublevsky, 32, who finished a full point ahead of the field. Rublevsky didn't lose a single game and displayed a performance of close to 2800 Elo points in the event. He takes home $40,000 for his undivided first place.

23-year-old Dmitry Jakovenko has been playing the tournament of his life, and in round eleven he had a theoretical chance of catching the leading Rublevsky (who would have had to lose). So Jakovenko played for a win, and didn't did so even after Rublevsky settled for a 17-move draw against Zvjaginsev. When Sergey Volkov gave up a pawn Dmitry really went to work, but the herculean 80-move effort to turn it into a full point did not work out in the end. So Dimitry Jakovenko ended equal second, a point behind Rublevsky and with about $19,000 in prize money.

Alexander Morozevich needed a win to share second with Jakovenko. Playing an English Four Knights against Alexander Motylev, "Moroz" was soon on the attack. He completely outplayed his opponent very nicely and needed just 33 moves to clinch victory, share second and increase his share of the prize money by about $6500.

The pariticipants: Bareev, Svjaginsev, Rublevsky, Kramnik, Tomashevsky, Jakovenko, Volkov, Morozevich, Svidler, Motylev, Dreev.

Final standings

Previous Results

Links

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