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 eight underway

Round 8: Men's

Andreikin, Dmitri ½-½ Inarkiev, Ernesto
Black dealt with White's initial pressure comfortably, and after trading many pieces White's structural weakness on d4, the isolated queen pawn, came into play. Black was slightly better after that until the end of the game, but Andreikin's accurate defense let him draw without ever being in real danger.

Two players are in hot pursuit of Svidler's lead: Nepomniachtchi and Kramnik are only half a point behind

Svidler, Peter ½-½ Vitiugov, Nikita
Svidler went for a variation that did not yield him anything. Despite having a good pawn structure, far superior to his opponent's, Vitiugov's faster development and easy piece activity allowed him to retain the balance. Svidler forced a repetition when the game was quite equal, but maybe it was more comfortable to play with black.

Vitiugov had very little difficulties in today's game

Nepo has a decisive game tomorrow as he plays Kramnik with white in the last round

Shomoev, Anton 0-1 Nepomniachtchi, Ian
Shomoev must have underestimated the power of Black's advancing pawns. Nepomniachtchi held the advantage from the opening and never let go, but he kept moving pieces back and forth waiting for Shomoev to make a mistake. Despite Black's extra pawn it was hard to make progress because of White's light-squared blockade. Eventually Shomoev erred decisively and Nepo took the game.

Qualifying for the Super Final is already a great achievement, but Shomoev has not been in the best form this tournament

Goganov, Aleksey 1-0 Motylev, Alexander

Karjakin's had to many draws this tournament to be a serious contender for the title

Kramnik, Vladimir ½-½ Karjakin, Sergey

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 8: Women's

Bodnaruk, Anastasia 0-1 Kosteniuk, Alexandra
A very strange game. The evaluation kept swinging from better for one side, to better for the other and back consistently as both players kept miscalculating variations. Eventually Kosteniuk obtained a nice grip on her opponent's position and was able to convert an endgame, even though her technique was not stellar.

Kovanova, Baira 0-1 Pogonina, Natalia
Kovanova's passive opening didn't allow her any advantage, but she was not worse either. However she allowed too much activity for Black in the endgame and she exposed her king for no good reason. This allowed Pogonina to sacrifice her passed a-pawn for some activity against her opponent's king, and although with correct play Kovanova should have held, she didn't find the correct way and she ended up getting mated.

Gunina is also only half a point ahead of her closest competitor, in this case that is Kosteniuk

Gunina, Valentina ½-½ Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina
Kovalevskaya's opening gave her some activity for a pawn, but it is known that White is able to consolidate it in these kinds of positions. Slowly Gunina made her pawn more and more powerful and she obtained a completely winning endgame. However her technique faltered big time when she allowed her king to become passive (the move 56.Kd5 would have won easily as Black would be looking at a zugzwang very soon), instead she never found a way around the blockade and had to conceded a draw.

Kovalevskaya's 50% allows her to win a few rating points as she is doing better than expected

Charochkina is last, but she was also the lowest rated participant by a fair margin

Charochkina, Daria ½-½ Goryachkina, Alexandra
The anti-Sveshnikovs in which White has an absolute control over d5 usually are not very dangerous, simply because besides having d5 there is no obvious plan to follow it up with. Black showed that these positions are indeed ok for her and drew without problems.

Kashlinskaya defended her rook endgame accurately

Kosintseva, Tatiana ½-½ Kashlinskaya, Alina
A very interesting and tactical game turned technical as Kosintseva held the slightest of advantages in a rook endgame. However Kashlinskaya defended well and entered a theoretical draw where White has an extra h-pawn but her king is locked in the corner. Kosintseva pushed this endgame for many, many moves, probably out of frustration.

Kosintseva tried for perhaps too many moves after it was clear the game would end in a draw. She is still at -1 and barely holding on to her 2500.

Standings

Pictures and information by Etery Kublashvili

Replay Men's Round 8 games

Replay Women's round 8 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.