Russian Championship Super Finals

The tournament is hosted by the Russian Chess Federation in cooperation with the Charity Foundation of Elena and Gennady Timchenko , with the support of the Government of the Nizhny Novgorod region. The Super Final will be a continuation of the program "chess in the museums", started by the match for the world title in 2012 at the Retyakov Gallery in Moscow on the initiative of businessmen Andrei Filatov and Gennady Timchenko. The venue for the prestigious tournament in Nizhny Novgorod will be the State Historical and Architectural Museum Manor Rukavishnikov. The Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum will also take part in the organization of the tournament. The tournament is a ound robin with ten players over nine rounds. Sofia-Rules. If first place is shared than the champion will be decided through a tiebreaker match. Time Control: 90 minutes/40 moves + 30 minutes + 30 seconds/move starting with the 1st move.

Round 3: Men's

Kramnik beat Andreikin in the Final of the World Cup, but Andreikin too sweet revenge today

Andreikin, Dmitri 1-0 Kramnik, Vladimir

GM Josh Friedel brings commentary on the game of the day:

With great style: Andreikin beats Kramnik for the second time this year, the first being at Dortmund

Svidler, Peter 1-0 Shomoev, Anton
Black's position looked threatening straight out of the opening. Clever play allowed Shomoev to consistently gain tempi against White's queen which allowed his superior development to develop into concrete threats. Precision failed him when instead of playing the strong 22...Nb6! he played 22...Nf6?! the difference being that the latter allowed Svidler to develop his a1-rook, whereas the former would have tied him to the defense of the a4 pawn. With the pressure off of Svidler, his superior minor piece gave him an edge. Black sealed his own fate with the incomprehensible decision to retain his knight and not trade it for White's bishop. With an extra pawn that Svidler picked off on a5 and a bishop against the knight the win was trivial.

To the untrained eye this game was very exciting...

Motylev, Alexander ½-½ Karjakin, Sergey
A wild game! Or at least it would have been if the players didn't repeat the game Vallejo Pons - Dominguez from Cuernavaca 2006 to the very end...

Goganov, Aleksey ½-½ Nepomniachtchi, Ian
Goganov was able to win a pawn in the opening, and he kept pressing forward the entire game. However the opposite colored bishops created a very difficult obstacle to overcome. Goganov tried as hard as he could, torturing Nepomniachtchi for over 100 moves, but alas Black was able to sacrifice a second pawn to secure a blockade and a draw.

After surviving a dubious position Inarkiev came back and almost won the game

Inarkiev, Ernesto ½-½ Vitiugov, Nikita
Never one to shy away from complications, Vitiugov played into wild complications and pushed his pawn on the h-file forward early in the opening to cause weaknesses on White's camp. In a very complicated position it seems that Vitiugov missed a chance to gain a decisive advantage by playing 21...Bg4!, though it is a very difficult move to make. Also a couple of moves later 23...Qc7! with the idea of Qb7! would have caused White problems in his light squares. In the game Vitiugov sacrificed his h3 pawn to obtain a powerful bishop on b7, but it was not enough to break through and slowly White consolidated his pawn, but Inarkiev was unable to convert a winning endgame against Vitiugov.

Joshua Friedel Josh was born in 1986 in New Hampshire, USA and is currently living in Wisconsin. He obtained his international master title in 2005 and his grandmaster in 2008. He has participated in five US Championships, including a tie for fourth in 2008. Major Open tournament victories include: the 2003 Eastern Open, 2005 Berkeley Masters, 2008 National Open, 2009 Edmonton International, 2009 North American Open, 2010 Saint Louis Open, 2010 American Open, 2013 Chicago Open. Josh is the current US Open Champion and is the first person qualified for the 2014 US Chess Championship.

Round 3: Women's

The rating favorite is now at only 1.0/3

Bodnaruk, Anastasia 1-0 Kosintseva, Tatiana
An important upset! White employed a Spanish Opening without h3, which is an interesting idea to fight against the mountain of theory that has developed around the Marshall. Soon the game turned wild as Kosintseva sacrificed two pawns for a powerful initiative and White's king found himself on d3 very soon after that, but somehow White was not losing by any means. After simplifying into an endgame White unnecessarily sacrificed an exchange, but her passed pawn on d6 allowed her to at least retain the balance. Kosintseva played too passively and her position collapsed after she allowed White's pieces to swarm to the 7th rank and paralyze her rooks.

Pogonina, Natalia ½-½ Goryachkina, Aleksandra
White was unable to get any advantage from this Slav defense and although both sides tried their own tricks at the end the game was simply even all throughout.

Surprise! Today is Chorachkina's 23rd birthday and the organizers gave her a nice surprise

She almost gave herself an awesome birthday present by defeating Gunina, but she failed in the conversion stage

Gunina, Valentina ½-½ Charochkina, Daria
Charochkina crushed Gunina from the opening and the middle game. She won a piece, correctly sacrificed it back to eliminate all of White's counterplay and for two extra pawns, but when it came time to finish her opponent off she kept missing chances until she blundered her initiative, her two extra pawns and any hope of winning the game away.

Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina ½-½ Kosteniuk, Alexandra
Kosteniuk managed to spoil her pawn structure in a Rauzer Sicilian style despite the game starting as a Rossolimo. This also meant that with the added development advantage from the Rossolimo (the check on b5 allows White a faster development than the regular Open Sicilian) Black's position was basically lost from the opening. The very simple 25.cxb5 would've finished Black as she would've had no defense at all against a subsequent Qa5 and a rooklift. Kovalevskaya played Qa5 too soon, but this was also winning. The baffling part was when White gave a perpetual in a winning position in which Black had no counterplay...

Not her birthday, but Kosteniuk got a nice half point gift from Kovalevskaya anyways

Kovanova, Baira 1-0 Kashlinskaya, Alina
Kovanova exhibited a better positional understanding than Kashlinskaya, her powerful knights and central domination outweighed her opponent's pair of bishops. This allowed her to slowly gain pawn after pawn until Black was forced to resign, a pretty example of this variation in the Spanish.

This girl showed today how to play the Spanish

Standings

Replay Men's Round 3 games

Replay Women's round 3 games

Schedule

Links Official tournament site All men games in PGN All women games in PGN The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.