Timofeev wins Moscow Open 2008

Artyom Timofeev won the Moscow Open chess tournament of 2008.

1 GM Timofeev Artyom RUS 2664 7.5
2 GM Riazantsev Alexander RUS 2628 7.0
3 GM Volkov Sergey RUS 2623 7.0
4 GM Efimenko Zahar UKR 2638 7.0
5 GM Lastin Alexander RUS 2604 7.0
6 GM Jobava Baadur GEO 2643 7.0
7 GM Inarkiev Ernesto RUS 2681 7.0
8 GM Kazhgaleyev Murtas KAZ 2594 7.0
9 GM Moiseenko Alexander UKR 2643 7.0
10 GM Kurnosov Igor RUS 2577 7.0

Morozevich wins Russian superfinals

Alexander Morozevich won the Russian Superfinals 2007. He finished with a win over Inarkiev and a 2800 + performance.
The only other contestant for the title, Grischuk drew with Svidler. Thus Morozevich finished a full point ahead of Grischuk.

In the women's section, there was a four way tie for the first place between Tatiana Kosintseva, Ovod, Tairova and Korbut.

Round 11 main results (Will be updated soon):

Men

Morozevich beat Inarkiev
Grischuk drew Svidler
Tomashevsky drew Jakovenko
Timofeev drew Dreev
Sakaev beat Amonatov
Vitiugov beat Rychagov

Women

Korbut lost to Ovod
Stepovaia beat Tairova
Pogonina lost to Tatiana Kosintseva
Shadrina drew Nadezhda Kosintseva
Kovalevskaya drew Matveeva
Giriya beat Gunina

Final Standings

Men

Morozevich 8
Grischuk 7
Tomashevsky 6.5

Women

Tatiana Kosintseva 7
Ovod 7
Tairova 7
Korbut 7

Dreev upsets Morozevich

Just when you thought Morozevich did the impossible by winning six games in a row, he made the other impossible possible. Now, Tomashevsky too has a chance of winning the title. Until yesterday, it seemed impossible that anyone will catch up.

The veteran Alexey Dreev, who seems to be on a second wind inspired form, beat Morozevich in 49 moves of a Sicilian. And that too with black. Well, color doesn't really matter when Moro is on the board. Tomashevsky beat Amonatov and he is just half a point adrift now.

Grischuk beat Timofeev to climb up to the third spot while Inarkiev beat Vitiugov.

In the women's section, Tatiana Kosintseva continued her slide by losing to Gunina. Her sister made up for the dismal day by beating Kovalevskaya with the black pieces.
Giriya beat Matveeva and Shadrina beat Stepovaia. The women's drawing quotient has been very low in this tournament.

Standings after Round 9:

Men

Morozevich - 6.5
Tomashevsky - 6
Grischuk - 5.5
Dreev - 5

Women

Tairova - 7
Korbut - 6.5
Pogonina - 6

Mighty Morozevich beats Svidler

The Moro magic continued into the 8th round of the Russian Superfinals of chess. Morozevich beat Svidler and with black and in 38 moves in a Sicilian Najdorf game. Morozevich's rating performance is a whopping 2900 now. The others seem to be tiring now with only one other game which saw a result when Timofeev beat Rychagov with the black pieces. Timofeev has salvaged a lot of points right at the end in what was otherwise a disastrous tournament for him.

In the women's section, the competition is cut-throat. No moro-like performance from anyone. But there were 5 decisive games out of 6. The big upset of the round in this section was Stepovaia beating Tatiana Kosintseva.

Results of the 8th round:

Men

Grischuk, Alexander - Sakaev, Konstantin ½-½
Dreev, Alexey - Tomashevsky, Evgeny ½-½
Amonatov, Farrukh - Vitiugov, Nikita ½-½
Svidler, Peter - Morozevich, Alexander 0-1
Rychagov, Andrey - Timofeev, Artyom 0-1
Inarkiev, Ernesto - Jakovenko, Dmitry ½-½

Women

Tairova, Elena - Girya, Olga 1-0
Kosintseva, Tatiana - Stepovaia, Tatiana 0-1
Matveeva, Svetlana - Pogonina, Natalija 0-1
Ovod, Evgenija - Gunina, Valentina 1-0
Kosintseva, Nadezhda - Korbut, Ekaterina ½-½
Shadrina, Tatiana - Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina 1-0

Standings after 8 rounds:

Men

Morozevich 6.5
Tomashevsky 5
Grischuk 4.5

Women

Tairova 6.5
Korbut 6
Pogonina 5.5

Russian Superfinals Chess 2007 - Round 4

No big surprises in round 4. The top seeds seem to have settled down to their usual business. Especially, Morozevich who beat who beat Rychagov in 50 moves with the black pieces.

The leader board after round four has five players with 2.5 points each. And three of them already have lost a game ! Never seen such a tournament with swinging fortunes so early.
The leaders are : Evgeny Tomashevsky , Alexander Morozevich, Alexander Grischuk, Nikita Vitiugov, and Farrukh Amonatov.

Round 4 Results (Men):

Grischuk, Alexander - Jakovenko, Dmitry ½-½
Sakaev, Konstantin - Tomashevsky, Evgeny 0-1
Rychagov, Andrey - Morozevich, Alexander 0-1
Svidler, Peter - Inarkiev, Ernesto ½-½
Dreev, Alexey - Amonatov, Farrukh 0-1
Timofeev, Artyom - Vitiugov, Nikita 0-1

Standings after Round 4(Men):
Evgeny Tomashevsky , Alexander Morozevich, Alexander Grischuk, Nikita Vitiugov, and Farrukh Amonatov - 2.5
Sakaev, Rychagov, Inarkiev, Svidler, Jakovenko - 2
Dreev - 1
Timofeev - 0.5

Day 3 of Russian Superfinals

There were no real surprises on day 3 unlike day 1 and 2 in the Russian Championship superfinals mens section.

Morozevich crushed Tomashevsky with the black pieces. The class of players like Svidler and Moro can be seen in the games after losing. They simply come back stronger. If you have ever observed other players who are not that sure of themselves in other tournaments, they lose a game, they will desparately try to draw the next. The the difference is the class !

OK and back to the results and Jakovenko beat Timofeev. The remaining games were drawn with Amonatov holding the strong Svidler.

The women's section was an all clobbering day with 6/6 results. No, draw is not considered a decent result :-). Thousands of threads on the Sofia rule, how to eliminate draws and many such.

A notable win was Matveeva's over N. Kosintseva.

The results:

Men

Tomashevsky, Evgeny - Morozevich, Alexander 0-1
Vitiugov, Nikita - Sakaev, Konstantin ½-½
Inarkiev, Ernesto - Grischuk, Alexander ½-½
Amonatov, Farrukh - Svidler, Peter ½-½
Jakovenko, Dmitry - Timofeev, Artyom 1-0
Dreev, Alexey - Rychagov, Andrey ½-½

Women

Pogonina, Natalija - Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina 1-0
Ovod, Evgenija - Shadrina, Tatiana 1-0
Matveeva, Svetlana - Kosintseva, Nadezhda 1-0
Tairova, Elena - Kosintseva, Tatiana 0-1
Gunina, Valentina - Stepovaia, Tatiana 0-1
Girya, Olga - Korbut, Ekaterina 0-1

Russian Superfinals Round One

The Russian superfinals got off to an explosive start with Andrey Rychagov beating fancied Peter Svidler. Rated almost 200 points below Svidler, Rychagov converted an advantage of a rook and knight endgame with an extra central pawn to win in 51 moves.

Morozevich played his usual brand of chess to completely outplay Jakovenko but could not finish smoothly. They settled for a draw in 69 moves.

There were wins by Farrukh Amonatov against Artyom Timofeev and Evgeny Tomashevsky against Nikita Vitugov (with Black) while Grishchuk drew his game against the solid Alexey Dreev.

In the women's Russian superfinals, there were four first round winners, Svetlana Matveeva won against Tatiana Stepovaia, Natalija Pogonina beat Olga Girya, Elena Tairov defeated Tatiana Shadrina and Ekaterina Korbut beat Valentina Gunina. The two Kosintseva sisters drew their match in just 9 moves.

The official site in Russian - http://russiachess.org/content/blogcategory/93/385/