8/23/2019 – The 2019 Russian Championships came to an end this Thursday in Izhevsk. Olga Girya won the women's section after defeating Natlija Pogonina in the Armageddon phase of the play-offs, while Evgeny Tomashevsky clinched the open title thanks to a final round victory over Kirill Alekseenko. This was Tomashevsky's second national triumph, while Girya won the championship for the first time. | Photo: Dmitry Kryakvin

8/18/2019 – Seven rounds of the open and women's Russian Superfinals have been completed before the second rest day in Izhevsk. Both tournaments have now sole leaders — Evgeny Tomashevsky is on an undefeated 4½ out of 7 score in the Open, while Olga Girya has taken more of a commanding lead amongst the women with 6 points after seven rounds. Four rounds are still left to go in the Republic of Udmurtia. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

8/12/2019 – The strong national tournaments in Russia started on Saturday. Two rounds of the dubbed Superfinals were played both in the Open and Women's categories, with the leaders in the two events currently on 'plus one' (1½ out of 2). Ernesto Inarkiev (pictured) and Kirill Alekseenko are on top in the Open, while Alexandra Kosteniuk, Olga Girya and Natalija Pogonina are sharing the lead amongst the women. Monday is a rest day as the tournament changes venues. Play resumes on Tuesday. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

11/8/2018 – Round two of the 2018 knockout Women's World Championship culminated with a handful of upsets, a few fighting matches and a couple of favourites dominating their rivals. Mobina Alinasab, Jolanta Zawadzka, Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova, Alisa Galliamova and Zhai Mo were the surprising winners in this stage of the event. The tension will continue to rise in round three, as the players know that getting through two more rounds will secure them a place in the Candidates. | Photos: Official site

10/14/2018 – In the second day of play in Porto Carras, the big teams once again took down their opponents with little collateral damage. While the real fight between clubs is only about to start, some individual encounters were in the spotlight on Saturday — Magnus Carlsen defeated Vladimir Potkin from an apparently innocuous position and Peter Svidler opened his tournament with a loss against Aleksandar Indjic. Calrsen's Valerenga will play second seeded AVE Novy Bor in Sunday's round. | Photo: Niki Riga / eurochess2018.com

9/6/2018 – The extremely competitive Russian Superfinals finished on Wednesday in Satka. Both the open and the women's sections were decided on two-game rapid playoffs — Dmitry Andreikin and Natalija Pogonina won their games with White and drew with Black, against Dmitry Jakovenko and Olga Girya, to become the 2018 Russian champions. ALEX YERMOLINSKY sent a report with no less than ten games analysed. | Photos: Eteri Kublashvili / Russian Chess Federation