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For a third year in row, Natalija Pogonina was in a play-off to decide the winner of the Women's Superfinal. In 2017, she was defeated by Aleksandra Goryachkina, while last year she took down none other than Olga Girya. For Girya, this was a particularly suspenseful event, as she was caught up by Pogonina in the very last round, then won the first play-off game...only to be caught up again in the second rapid encounter. The eventual champion got White in the Armageddon, and thanks to a 67-move win she finally got her first national title.
Contrary to what was expected, the open section was the one to finish without the need of a play-off, despite it being such a tight race throughout. In the last round, Evgeny Tomashevsky — who was co-leading with Nikita Vitiugov until round ten — faced an ambitious Kirill Alekseenko with the white pieces. Alekseenko's approach backfired though, as he found himself in a worse position in the early middlegame. When Tomashevsky got the win after 76 moves, Vitiugov had already signed a draw with Alexey Sarana, thus securing Tomashevsky first place on 7 out of 11 — this was his second triumph in the Russian championship, as he had won the title back in 2015.
A tie for first place is settled by a rapid playoff with 15 minutes plus 10 seconds per move for each player and, if the score is still tied, a 5 vs. 4 Armageddon game, where Black has draw odds.
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At the airport, in the hotel or at home on your couch: with the new ChessBase you always have access to the whole ChessBase world: the new ChessBase video library, tactics server, opening training App, the live database with eight million games, Let’s Check and web access to playchess.com
Commentary by GM Daniil Yuffa
The opening ceremony took place under the open sky on the premises of the Museum Estate of Pyotr Tchaikovsky.
For the drawing of lots, chief arbiter of the competition IA Elena Polovina, offered players the choice of books from The Childhood Years of P. Tchaikovsky, which had the starting numbers hidden inside.
The men of the Open Championship with their pairing numbers | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili
The creative part of the evening began with the performance of Andrey Shashkin, the scholarship holder of Denis Matsuev's New Names charity foundation, winner of the Udmurt Republic Government Prize and of the All-Russian Young Talents Competition, a young pianist and child prodigy. It was followed by the musical ensemble Saikan (Awakening) performing Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings on the national Udmurt instrument krez. Towards the end of the ceremony several musical pieces were performed by Yuri Rozum, the People’s Artist of Russia, a laureate of international competitions and a famous pianist.
Yuri Rozum in concert | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili
Times in UTC.
| Round | Date | Time |
| 1 | August 10 | 11:00 |
| 2 | August 11 | 11:00 |
| 3 | August 13 | 11:00 |
| 4 | August 14 | 11:00 |
| 5 | August 15 | 11:00 |
| 6 | August 16 | 11:00 |
| 7 | August 17 | 11:00 |
| 8 | August 19 | 11:00 |
| 9 | August 20 | 11:00 |
| 10 | August 21 | 11:00 |
| 11 | August 22 | 10:00 |
In case of a draw of two or more participants for first place, a rapid playoff will be played.
