Super Final R9: Kasparov wins again, increases lead

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 nine – Thursday, November 25, 2004

Alexander Grischuk played a rare variation of the Caro Kann Exchange and came out of known theory with a very promising position. Soon he had two minor pieces for a rook, and in spite of tenacious defence Bareev was lost in 55 moves. Morozevich-Korotylev became a rook ending at around move 34. After 20 moves of maneuvering the rooks were exchanged and each side queened a pawn. With just a pawn each on the board Morozevich's king was better placed and with a few deft strokes he ended the game victoriously. The 56-move struggle between Vitaly Tseshkovsky and Vladimir Epishin ended in a draw – the only undecided game in this round. In the Open Ruy Lopez between Svidler and Motylev there was a key moment.

Svidler,P (2735) - Motylev,A (2651) [C80]
57th ch-RUS Moscow RUS (9), 25.11.2004
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Nxe4 6.d4 b5 7.Bb3 d5 8.dxe5 Be6 9.Nbd2 Nc5 10.c3 Be7 11.Bc2 d4 12.Nb3 d3 13.Bb1 Nxb3 14.axb3 Bf5 15.Be3 0-0 16.Re1 Qd5 17.Bd4 Rfd8 18.Re3 Nxd4 19.cxd4 c5 20.Bxd3 cxd4 21.Re2 Qe6 22.h3 Rac8 23.Ne1 Rc6 24.Qb1 Bxd3 25.Qxd3 h6 26.f4 Qc8

In this position Peter Svidler played 27.Nf3 and allowed his opponent to penetrate with 27...Rc1+ 28.Re1 Qc2 29.Qxc2 Rxc2 30.e6 fxe6 31.Rxe6 Bc5 32.Kh2 d3 33.Rd1 d2 34.Kg3 Rd3 35.Kg4 Bb4 36.Re8+ Kh7 37.f5 Rc1 38.Ne5 Re3 0-1.

In Timofeev vs Kasparov the latter, more than twice the age of the former, made it amply clear early in the game that he was going for the full point with his Sicilian defence. It was a very convincing victory, Kasparov's fourth in a row, which put him a full point ahead of his closest rival (Grischuk), with his performance curve crossing 2900. In the last two rounds Kasparov faces Morozevich and Grischuk, and chess fans will be especially eager to watch the final round encounter between the two leaders.

Current standings

Draw watch

Of the five games played today only one ended in a draw. Taking another look at the statistics of the entire tournament we see that of the 45 games played so far 54% were drawn. This is a sensationally low number. Remember that most experts were expecting a 60-70% draw rate.

Of the 21 decided games (46%), White won twelve times, Black nine times.

Of the drawn games just two were ended in less than 20 moves, eleven were in 20-29 moves, and the longest draws, all three involving Motylev on the black side, were in 76, 78 and 84 moves.

All Results

• All games in zipped PGN
• All reports so far