Morozevich in Sole lead at the Russian Superfinals

Alexander Morozevich broke away to become the sole leader after the sixth round of the Russian Chess Superfinals. Today, he beat the tailender Artyom Timofeev with the black pieces. Timofeev gave up on the 36th move when he was about to lose a piece and his king under attack by Moro's marauding pieces.

Grishchuk, Svidler, and Dreev were other winners over Tomashevsky, Vitiugov, and Jakovenko respectively. Dreev is clearly in good form and after this round, is performing above his rating expectation.

Vitiugov dared to take the poisoned pawn on the King side of a Sicilian game and was duly punished. He did have his chances to survive, but eventually, Svidler asserted his class to prevail.

Grishchuk vs Tomashevsky was a Queen's Indian defence game in which Grishchuk's doubled rooks on the "a" file did the damage to give him a winning edge which he converted to win in 45 moves.

It is interesting to note the performance ratings of the men in this tournament. No one has been able to perform at absurd levels as we normally see in many tournaments. The leader Morozevich is performing at only 2817 !

In the women's section, Tatiana Kosintseva, Korbut and Tairova were winners today.

Russian Superfinals Round 6

Grischuk, Alexander - Tomashevsky, Evgeny 1-0 Queens Indian
Svidler, Peter - Vitiugov, Nikita 1-0 Sicilian Rauzer
Amonatov, Farrukh - Inarkiev, Ernesto ½-½ Scotch Game
Rychagov, Andrey - Sakaev, Konstantin ½-½ 39 Anti-Meran Gambit
Dreev, Alexey - Jakovenko, Dmitry 1-0 Nimzo Indian 4.Qc2
Timofeev, Artyom - Morozevich, Alexander 0-1 Sicilian Defence

Russian Superfinals Women Round 6

Kosintseva, Tatiana - Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina 1-0 Sicilian Rossolimo
Tairova, Elena - Gunina, Valentina 1-0 Ruy Lopez Marshall
Matveeva, Svetlana - Ovod, Evgenija ½-½ Nimzo Indian 4.Qc2
Shadrina, Tatiana - Girya, Olga ½-½ Sicilian Labourdonnais
Kosintseva, Nadezhda - Pogonina, Natalija ½-½ Sicilian Modern Dragon
Stepovaia, Tatiana - Korbut, Ekaterina 0-1 Sicilian Najdorf Variation

Leader Board

Men

1. Morozevich, Alexander g RUS 2755 4½
2. Grischuk, Alexander g RUS 2715 4
3. Svidler, Peter g RUS 2732 3½

Women

1. Kosintseva, Tatiana m RUS 2492 4½
2. Pogonina, Natalija wg RUS 2462 4½
3. Tairova, Elena m RUS 2391 4½

Russian Super Finals Round 5

The 5th round of the Russian super finals are over. Tomashevsky and Morozevich are the leaders with 3.5 points each. In the women's section, Pogonina is the sole leader with an impressive 4/5. She now boasts a rating performance of over 2630 for the tournament.

Morozevich again teased and taunted to get another win, this time against Sakaev. But he took 59 moves to wrap it up in a slav defence game.
Alexey Dreev was a winner over the relatively inexperienced Inarkiev.

In the women's category, Tairova, Korbut and Nadezhda Kosintseva won over Kovalevskya, Ovod and Gunina respectively.

Russian Chess Championship Round 5

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

Russian Chess Championship Women Round 5

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

Russian Super Finals December 21st 2007

Today is a rest day for the Russian Superfinals participants. The no-holds barred contests resume from tomorrow.

So far, we have seen enterprising chess from the youngsters and some tremendous comebacks from Svidler and Morozevich. Let the trend continue !

Russian superfinals round two

Peter Svidler, probably angered by his strange defeat to a low ranked player yesterday, beat Alexey Dreev in only 36 moves in a show of dominance to come back into the reckoning.

The shock of the day was the defeat of Alexander Morozevich at the hands of Nikita Vitiugov. While no one in this tournament can really be called weak, Vitiugov is certainly not in Morozevich's class yet. But maybe this is his break out moment ?

In other games, Sakaev upset Jakovenko and Grischuk beat Amonatov.

The tournament is pretty amazing since these young guys don't seem to think much about the exploits of players like Svidler and Morozevich at the very top of world chess. More exciting games sure to come !

Russian Championship Superfinals starts

The incredibly strong Russian Superfinals starts today. The field includes Alekseev, Grischuk, Dreev, Morozevich, Svidler, Timofeev, Tomashevsky, Jakovenko and other strong contenders.

The tournament will be over 11 rounds and Alekseev is the defending champion.