Moscow: All games drawn, then three white wins

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 six

All games in round six were drawn, albeit mostly after tough fights. Sakaev had a small initiative against Svidler but the latter's defence held, whilst second-placed Vitiugov failed to capitalise on an extra pawn against Maslak. Morozevich had a fluctuating struggle against Alekseev, and at one point looked to have good chances, but this too was drawn.

Round seven

Svidler-Tomashevsky: White hung onto the pawn sacrificed by his opponent, and probably should have made more of his chances. But Tomashevsky's two bishops kept him in the game. Eventually, he traded one off to reach a rook + opposite colored bishop ending, which was soon drawn.

Inarkiev-Morozevich: Black built up a clear advantage against the out-of-form Inarkiev, but possibly rushed his positional exchange sacrifice, and White held on to draw.

Vitiugov-Sakaev and Jakovenko-Lastin saw the same Slav line, but whilst the former was a hard-fought Slav draw, Jakovenko picked up a pawn in the late middlegame and won.

Alekseev-Riazantsev: White obtained a large space advantage against Riazantsev's French, and won without too much trouble. Timofeev-Maslak: White played the game of the day, with a positional exchange sacrifice that produced a convincing win.

Timofeev,Arty (2670) - Maslak,K (2544) [A39]
ch-RUS Moscow RUS (7), 10.10.2008
1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 g6 3.g3 c5 4.Bg2 Bg7 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.0-0 0-0 7.d4 cxd4 8.Nxd4 d6 9.Nc2 a6 10.b3 Qa5 11.Nd5 Be6 12.Bd2 Qd8 13.Rc1 Rc8 14.Nce3 Re8 15.Bc3 Ng4 16.Nxg4 Bxg4 17.Bxg7 Kxg7 18.Qd2 Bd7 19.Rfd1 b6 20.b4 e5 21.Qe3 Rb8 22.b5 axb5 23.cxb5 Nd4

24.Rxd4 exd4 25.Qxd4+ f6 26.e3 Rf8 27.a4 Be8 28.h4 Rf7 29.Bh3 Bd7 30.Bxd7 Rxd7 31.Rc6 Rc8 32.Rxc8 Qxc8 33.Nxf6 Qc1+ 34.Kg2 Rf7 35.Ng4+ 1-0.

Standings after seven rounds

Draw statistics

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