Super Final R4: Kasparov misses win, Grischuk doesn't

57th Russian Championship Super Final November 14th – December 1st 2004

The Super Final of the 57th Russian is being held in the Festive Hall of the Hotel Rossija (“Rociya”), directly adjacent to the Red Square. The prize sum is US $125,000, to be paid out in rouble equivalent. The winner takes $50,000. The participants of this round robin tournament are Garry Kasparov, Alexander Morozevich, Alexander Grischuk, Peter Svidler, Evgeny Bareev, Alexey Dreev, Vitaly Tseshkovsky, Alexander Motylev, Vladimir Epishin, Artem Timofeev and Alexey Korotylev. Originally Vladimir Kramnik and Anatoly Karpov were included, but both withdrew at the last moment.

Round four – Thursday, November 18, 2004

The cliffhanger of the day was the game Kasparov-Motylev, which went on until about 10:30 p.m. local time and lasted 76 moves. Kasparov pressed hard, and at one stage he had a clear win. See for yourself:

25-year-old Alexander Motylev has just advanced his c-pawn, and our ChessBase 9.0 threat animation immediately displays the cruncher: 54.Rxh5, with the threat 55.Rh7+ and mate to follow. Black has no sensible defence, e.g. 54...Kc7 55.Rh7+ Kb8 56.Rb6+ Ka8 57.Rxb3 and White is a rook and pawn up. But Kasparov, who had been working for a long time on a plan a few moves earlier, continued with 54.Rc6 h4 55.Rb1 Rg3+ 56.Kf4 Nd4 57.Rb7+ Kd8 58.Ra6 Kc8 59.Rh7 Kb8 and ultimately the game ended in a very frustrating draw for the world's number one player.

Bareev-Dreev was drawn in 21 moves, Korotylev-Epishin lasted 27 uneventful moves, while Morozevich and Svidler, who had both lost on the previous day, took 25. The only decisive game was Grischuk-Tseshkovsky, in which the veteran GM hung on against his 40 years younger opponent for 55 moves.

Tseshkovsky has just played 55...b5 to dislodge the rook, but ran into 56.Rxc5 dxc5 57.Rd1, pinning the knight. If 57...Kg8 58.Bxb5 Kf8 59.Bc4 and the knight is lost. Tseshkovsky resigned after 57...b4 58.Bc4 Kg8 59.Rxd5.

Current standings

Friday, November 19 is a rest day for all players.

All Results

• All games in zipped PGN
• All reports so far