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 4: Men's

Svidler in his post-game conference

Svidler, Peter 1-0 Andreikin, Dmitri

GM Josh Friedel brings us the commentary of the game of the day.

Andreikin is at 50% with not a single draw!

Who wouldn't want an autograph after he played such a game?

Kramnik, Vladimir 1-0 Goganov, Aleksey
Through an unusual move-order the game transposed into a fianchetto Dragon Sicilian, which is not considered to be the most dangerous variation for Black, but it is more positional than usual. Goganov lashed out with a quick e6-d5 which had never been tried before, and probably for good reason. Despite Black's slight activity, he was after all just down a pawn. Kramnik consolidated his pawn and proceeded to outplay Goganov in a technical endgame.

Kramnik is back at +1 but one point away from Svidler

Nepomniachtchi, Ian ½-½ Motylev, Alexander
Motylev was probably slightly better through most of the game. Nepomniachtchi's opening yielded nothing and Black's protected passed pawn on c4 was an asset. However White was able to trade several pieces on e4, forcing the c4 pawns support to end up in that square and that left c4 unprotected. This barely allowed White to have enough counterplay to force Black into an eventual repetition.

Nepomniachtchi, like Andreikin, is at 50%, but Nepo still has to play the highest rated people

Shomoev, Anton ½-½ Vitiugov, Nikita
An interesting game saw Vitiugov sacrifice an exchange early in the opening to obtain a powerful light-squared blockade and activity with his queen against his opponent's exposed king. Shomoev sacrificed the exchange shortly after that and found himself down a pawn, but the elimination of his opponent's queen and the open c-file gave him enough counterplay to draw the endgame.

Inarkiev held what is considered to be an endgame with good drawing chances

Karjakin, Sergey ½-½ Inarkiev, Ernesto
The first 24 moves of this game had been seen before in the game Stellwagen-Harikrishna of 2008. White ends upwith an extra pawn but its conversion is nearly impossible due to the powerful placement of Black's active bishop pair. Karajakin wasn't able to produce anything special from this endgame.

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 4: Women's

Bodnaruk, Anastasia 0-1 Gunina, Valentina
Black's Caro-Kann turned tactical quickly as Bodnaruk sacrifice some material for what looked like an initiative. Unfortunately for her Gunina "sacrificed" her queen for three minor pieces, which is usually an overwhelming amount of pieces for a queen to handle. This game was no different and the power of Black's minor pieces annihilated the opponent's position.

Kosintseva, the pre-tournament favorite, is now last in the standings

Kosintseva, Tatiana 0-1 Kosteniuk, Alexandra
A very strange game that kept going between equality and advantage for Black. The game was very complicated and positionally messy. White missed a chance to draw the game at the end, instead of removing her powerful knight from f5, taking on b5 and defending it might have given Black too many problems to solve; it's not so clear how she would have maneuvered her pieces to support the two protected passed pawns.

Kosteniuk maybe let go of her advantage in a couple of occasions, but she was never worse in this game

Despite being at -1 Charochkina is winning rating as her opponent's average rating is very high

Charochkina, Daria 0-1 Kovanova, Baira

Our talented friend, WGM Tatev Abrahamyan from California, returns to grace us with detailed analysis on how Kovanova is keeping her lead:

Kashlisnakaya, Alina ½-½ Pogonina, Natalia
Pogonina's aggressive advance of her a-pawn against her opponent's king position didn't yield much and it landed her in a situation where her lack of development quickly became problematic. White used this time to advance her central pawns and obtain a nice bind against her opponent, including targeting the weak pawn on a3. With some nice maneuvers she round up that pawn and simplified into a technically winning endgame. A move 40 mistake (40.Ra1 would have won immediately) allowed Pogonina some counterplay and after further mistakes of White she was even able to save the game.

Pogonina needs to start winning games to have a chance at the title

Goryachkina, Alexandra ½-½ Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina
Black became a little too happy with the amount of pawns she sacrificed, and she was completely lost at some point. However Goraychkina's precision in a very complicated position was not on spot and she lost her advantage with two big mistakes: the first one was 30.Ke2?! instead of the more powerful 30.Bf6! with a nearly unstoppable Qh4+ following, and trading rooks with 37.Rd1? instead of pressing forward with the attack with 37.Rf6. After that Kovalevskaya saved half a point.

Tatev Abrahamyan Born in 1988 in Yerevan, Armenia, the Women's Grandmaster now lives in Glendale, California and is one of the strongest players in the American women's olympic team. After graduating in 2011 from California State University, Long Beach with a double major in psychology and political science, Tatev focused on becoming a full time chess professional. She recently scored her second IM norm and is already qualified for the next Women's World Championship

Standings

pictures and information by Etery Kublashvili

Replay Men's Round 4 games

Replay Women's round 4 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.