Round 3 of the Russian Championships Superfinals took place 19 August in Barnaul. The participants were welcomed by Sergey Karlov, Deputy General Director of Alttrans, representative of the Board of Trustees of the Altai Krai Chess Federation;
Sergey Karlov, Deputy General Director of Alttrans made a symbolic first move in the P. Ponkratov vs. A. Dreev game.
In the open championship, Arseniy Nesterov (photo above) and Artyom Timofeev created a real thriller. The game opened calmly to a symmetrical line of the Queens Gambit Accepted. However, White went on to grab space in the centre and created dangerous threats to the enemy king. Being in extreme time pressure, Nesterov made an imprecise move, after which Timofeev practically equalised the position with a resourceful defence. The game transposed into a knight ending with a small initiative for White, in which Black committed a blunder. Black ended up down a pawn, and his kingside counterplay came to a deadend. Arseniy Nesterov won the game on move 53.
The games Esipenko – Dubov, Dreev – Ponkratov, Grebnev – Artemiev, Grischuk – Matlakov, and Makarian – Najer ended in a draw.
Tournament standings after Round 3:
1-2. Alexander Grischuk, Arseniy Nesterov – 2 points
3-11. Pavel Ponkratov, Maxim Matlakov, Evgeniy Najer, Vladislav Artemiev, Rudik Makarian, Aleksey Grebnev, Andrey Esipenko, Daniil Dubov, Aleksey Dreev – 1.5
12. Artyom Timofeev – 0.5.
Round 4 pairings:
Najer – Timofeev, Ponkratov – Nesterov, Matlakov – Dreev, Dubov – Grishuk, Artemiev – Esipenko, Makarian – Grebnev.
The women’s round was very competitive with four out of six games decisive. Kateryna Lagno (above, left) defeated Valentina Gunina (above right). In the Caro-Kann Defence, White took space on the queenside, while Black looked for her chances in the middle and on the kingside. Shortly before the time control, sharp tactical complications ensued with Black committing the last mistake. Lagno won the game on move 44.
Leya Garifullina (above) outplayed Olga Karmanova as Black in the rook and knight ending, where she achieved a spatial edge. Leya advanced her central pawns far, gradually pushed her connected passers to the third rank and won.
Aleksandra Goryachkina (above) scored her first tournament victory by defeating Ekaterina Goltseva as White. In a complex, dynamic position shortly before the time control, Black went for a tactical complications and miscalculated, sustaining heavy material losses.
Polina Shuvalova, playing Black against Daria Charochkina (playing white above), made a tempting but risky sacrifice of a piece for two pawns and the initiative out of the opening. Daria carefully defended, gradually bringing her forces into the battle and exchanging the opponent’s active pieces. Compensation for the sacrificed piece proved insufficient, and eventually Charochkina gained a big advantage. Nevertheless, the struggle continued (a total of 115 moves were played), with both sides making inaccuracies: sometimes it seemed that White’s victory was just around the corner, and sometimes it seemed that Black would escape. Nevertheless, Daria managed to win in what was a long struggle full of drama.
The games Pogonina – Kovanova and Voit – Girya were drawn.
Tournament standings after Round 3:
1-2. Leya Garifullina, Kateryna Lagno – 2.5 points
3-4. Olga Girya, Aleksandra Goryachkina – 2
5-7. Daria Voit, Daria Charochkina, Natalija Pogonina – 1.5
8-11. Valentina Gunina, Baira Kovanova, Polina Shuvalova, Olga Karmanova – 1
12. Ekaterina Goltseva – 0.5.
Round 4 pairings:
Gunina – Shuvalova, Garifullina – Charochkina, Goltseva – Karmanova, Kovanova – Goryachkina, Girya – Pogonina, Lagno – Voit.
The Russian Championship Superfinals are played separately for men and women in a round robin system in 11 rounds with one rest day. Game days: August 17-22 and 24-28. All rounds start at 3 PM local time (11 AM Moscow time). In case of a tie for the 1st place, an additional competition will be held.
Five best players of the open event will qualify for the FIDE World Cup, while three best players of the women’s tournament will get the right to play in the FIDE Women’s World Cup.
The Superfinals are organised by the Chess Federation of Russia with support of the Russian Ministry of Sport and Timchenko Foundation in cooperation with the Government of the Altai Territory and the Chess Federation of the Altai Territory.
The CFR general partner is PhosAgro. The CFR partners are Aeroflot and Sima-land.