Moscow: Jakovenko, Svidler, Alekseev share first

Russian Championship Super Final

The Russian Championship Super Final took place from October 3rd to 15th in the Moscow Central Chess Club. Participants were the top players by rating and qualifiers from the higher league competitions. The rate of play was 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 could not offer draws directly to their opponents but had to do so through an arbiter. The prize fund was five million roubles, which translates to 139,000 Euros or US $193,000.

Round ten

Round eleven

Alekseev,Evgeny (2715) - Svidler,P (2727) [B12]
ch-RUS Moscow RUS (11), 15.10.2008
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Nf3 e6 5.Be2 Nd7 6.0-0 Bg6 7.b3 Nh6 8.c4 Nf5 9.Nc3 Bb4 10.Bb2 0-0 11.Bd3 f6 12.Ne2 fxe5 13.dxe5 Nc5 14.Nf4 Nxd3 15.Nxd3 Bh5 16.Nf4 Bxf3 17.Qxf3 Qe7 18.cxd5 cxd5 19.Qg4 Bd2 20.Nd3 Rac8 21.Qd1 Qg5 22.g3 Be3 23.Kh1 Qh6 24.Bc1 d4 25.Kg2 Rc3 26.Qe2 Qg6 27.fxe3 Rxd3 28.Kg1 Nxe3 29.Rxf8+ Kxf8 30.Bxe3 dxe3 31.Rc1 h6 32.Rc8+ Kf7

Peter Svidler has played an attacking Caro-Kann, and, after his opponent missed some chances to hold (e.g. with 31.Qc2!), is now pushing for victory. In time trouble Evgeny Alekseev makes it easy for him: 33.g4?? Qe4 34.Rc4 Qd5 0-1. A bitter defeat for Alekseev, who traded a clear win of the Russian Championship for a place in the tiebreak, which will be played on October 28.

Final standings

Draw average

The tournament had an anti-draw rule implemented – the players had to get permission from the arbiters before they could agree to a draw. This (and probably other factors) led to a lot of good fights and a comparatively low drawing percentage: only 35 out of 66 = 53% of the games were drawn. White won 23 games (=35%) and Black eight games (=12%).

Playoffs

The playoffs were supposed to take place immediately after the final round, but it had become late and the three-way tie meant that the tiebreak would go on until way past midnight. So the organisers decided to hold the playoff games on 28th October, starting from 1:00 p.m. Moscow time. There will be six games in a double round robin, with time controls at 15 min per player per game, with a ten-second increment per move.

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.