Gunina leads in the Russia Women's Superfinal
Pictorial report by Anna Burtasova
This time, the number of participants was narrowed to ten. The Kosintseva
sisters declined the invitation due to the tight tournament schedule: both played
a super strong WGM
Tournament in China in July and the first stage of FIDE Women
Grand Prix 2011 in Rostov-on-Don in the first part of August. Both were
Russian champions in the previous years. Without them, the tournament with a
prize fund of 1,500,000 rubles (around 37,500 Euros, with 10,000 Euros for the
winner) gathered all the other best players.
Qualified for the event were the two winners of the previous year were Alisa
Galliamova and Natalia Pogonina (who lost the title to Galliamova on the tie-break),
the winners of the Higher League Swiss (held in Taganrog in June) Elena Zaiatz,
Baira Kovanova, Valentina Gunina, Daria Charochkina, Tatiana Shadrina and Olga
Girya, as well as Alexandra Kosteniuk and Anastasiya Bodnaruk by rating. The
average rating of the event is thus 2418.
Alexandra Kosteniuk and Alisa Galliamova (above) just returned from the Grand
Prix Rostov-on-Don. Neither are in form, except that in the first round Kosteniuk
won her game against the defending champion Galliamova.
Valentina Gunina is in the lead. She has been lucky in some games, like the
one against Natalia Pogonina (above), who gave her half a point in their second-round
game when she missed a winning line in the time trouble. Otherwise, Vanentina
won several games quickly due to her great calculating skills. The tournament
now looks like a runaway victory for the Moskovite, who after seven rounds,
with two to go, leads the field by 1½ points.
Valentina was born in 1989 in Murmansk. Her father was her first coach, and taught
her and her elder brother to play. Her first successes came early: She was Russian
Champion under 10, 14, 16, 18, 20, world champion under 18, and also won the Higher
League. In 2010 Valentina became Olympic Champion as a Russian team member. As
a young girl she played very quickly, and even today she is known as a great blitz
player, winning a lot of blitz events in Moscow, where she moved when became a
student of Social University. For her this superfinal is already the sixth. The
best result so far was the bronze medal in 2009.
Standings after seven rounds
Note that the draw ratio is a sensationally low 25.7%, with just one short
game – which was not a draw but a fiery 21-move win by Valentina Gunina
against Tatiana Shadrina (given below).
The participants, trainers and friends at the opening ceremony
The event is being held in the legendary Central Chess Club on Gogolevskiy
Boulevard
in the center of Moscow (near Arbat street)
Valentina, how is the tournament going for you so far?
Compared with last year, when I had three zeros at the start, this superfinal
is going great. I know that in the game with Pogonina the computer estimated
my position at minus three! I lost the right path and spent all my time thinking
of how to equalize. As a result, I was in a rough time-trouble, but somehow
got lucky.
But what happened to the old Gunina who played so quickly that she did
not even know what time trouble is?
I am working on chess much more now, and right away there are mand more things
to think of! (laughs)
In second place, with 4.5/7, is Baira Kovanova, who has exactly the approach
of the “old Gunina” – she plays very quickly, without time-troubles
and not making obvious mistakes. This has worked well so far: three wins and
one loss. Baira originates from Elista, Kalmykia, and now lives in Saratov,
where she studied at the University and played for their team.
Moskovite Daria Charochkina, who has the lowest rating at the
event, is on 50% and stands to gain 12 Elo points
Daria, who is on the final grade of the Sport University, said: “I managed
to save a not so good position against Kosteniuk, after I had mixed up something
in the beginning. Generally, I am happy how things are going so far. Of course
it is a pity that I lost my game against Galliamova just in a few moves, but
on the other hand in the first game I was lucky somewhere. I don’t put
serious goals in front of me, I just want to show good games and a decent result,
because this is my first superfinal”.
Valentina Gunina, with a new hairstyle, beat Tatiana Shadrina in round five
in
27 moves with black – a typical slugfest game that is worth replaying.
[Event "61st ch-RUS w"]
[Site "Moscow RUS"]
[Date "2011.08.23"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Shadrina, T."]
[Black "Gunina, V."]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B12"]
[WhiteElo "2373"]
[BlackElo "2487"]
[PlyCount "42"]
[EventDate "2011.08.08"]
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. Nf3 e6 5. Be2 c5 6. Be3 Qb6 7. Nc3 Nc6 8. O-O
Qxb2 9. Nb5 c4 10. Nc7+ Kd7 11. Nxa8 Bxc2 12. Qc1 Ba3 13. Bg5 {[#]} h6 14. Qf4
Bf5 15. Rab1 Bxb1 16. Qxf7+ Nge7 17. Bc1 Qxe2 18. Bxa3 Bg6 19. Qxg7 Rxa8 20.
Qxh6 Rg8 21. h4 Bd3 0-1
Natalia Pogonina with her husband Peter Zhdanov
Defending champion Alisa Galliamova with 3.5/7
The winner of Higher league Elena Zaiatz has 3.5/7
Daria Charochkina lost her last two games and is on 50%
Losing 13 rating points: Alexandra Kosteniuk with 3.0/7
Olga Girya, vice world champion under 20, is only at 2.5/7
Anastasiya Bodnaruk is on last place with 1.5/7
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