Four games decided in Russian Super Final

Russian Championship Super Final

The Russian Championship Super Final is taking place from October 3rd to 15th in the Moscow Central Chess Club. Participants are the top players by rating and qualifiers from the higher league competitions. The rate of play is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves, and then 15 minutes and a 30 second increment per move to end the game. Players cannot offer draws directly to their opponents but have to do so through an arbiter. Play starts at 15:00h local Moscow time (13:00 CEST, 07:00 New York). The prize fund is five million roubles, which translates to 139,000 Euros or US $193,000.

Round five

Svidler-Maslak was a Sicilian Najdorf which ended after a tough fight in a draw by repetition on move 63. Sakaev-Tomashevsky was a Queen's Indian in which Black offered to exchange queens ten times in the space of 14 moves. White resisted, and the game ended on move 53 with an arbiter-sanctioned draw agreement. Jakovenko-Morozevich was a somewhat unusual Sicilian Paulsen which saw Black winning a pawn on move 27 and then outplaying his opponent to finish him off in 57 moves. Alekseev-Inarkiev was a wipe-out in a Volga (or Benkö) Gambit, with poor Ernesto Inarkiev for a fourth time in five rounds.

Timofeev,Arty (2670) - Riazantsev,A (2656) [B12]
ch-RUS Moscow RUS (5), 08.10.2008
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.f3 e6 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.Nge2 Ne7 6.Be3 0-0 7.Qd2 Nd7 8.a3 Ba5 9.Ng3 f5 10.exf5 Nxf5 11.Nxf5 exf5 12.Bd3 Nf6 13.0-0 Nh5 14.Bg5 Qd6 15.Rae1 Be6 16.Qf2 h6 17.Bd2 Bc7 18.Qh4 Bf7 19.Bxf5 g5 20.Qh3 Qf6 21.Ne2 Ng7 22.Bd3 h5 23.g4 Bg6 24.f4 hxg4 25.Qxg4 Bxd3 26.cxd3 gxf4 27.Bxf4 Bxf4 28.Rxf4 Qe7 29.Ref1 Qe3+ 30.Kh1

Black is losing, but he should exchange rooks on f4 if he wants to defend. Instead he plays 30...Qxd3? 31.Rg1 Qh7. Now 32.Qe6 finishes Black off quickly, but Timofeev, not being a computer, went about winning in a more traditional fashion. 32.Qg2 Rae8 33.Rg4 Rf7 34.Nf4 Qh6 35.Rg6 Qh7 36.Nh5 Ree7 37.Qg4 Kf8 38.Nxg7 Rxg7 39.Qf5+ Rgf7 40.Qc8+ Re8 41.Rg8+ 1-0.

Standings after five rounds

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member of Playchess you should download ChessBase Light, which is free and gives you immediate access. You can use the program to read, replay and analyse PGN games.