Andrey Esipenko Catches Up with Superfinal Leaders
Kateryna Lagno is leading the women's section.
Round 8 of the Russian Championships Superfinals finished in the city of Barnaul. The head of the Altai branch of PJSC Sberbank, Ivan Sheshikov, made the symbolic first move in E. Najer vs M. Matlakov game.
Andrey Esipenko and Alexander Grischuk opened the game with a well-known line in the QGD's Carlsbad, in which the play immediately transposes into an endgame with a pair of bishops but doubled pawns for Black. Esipenko soon exchanged the "poor" g6-bishop, correcting his opponent's pawn structure, but gaining control over the light squares with a stable advantage as a result. Grischuk's attempts at counterplay on the queenside only created more weaknesses. Little by little, White improved his pieces and outplayed his opponent with great skill. Esipenko had a pawn to his good and went on to win the game on move 54.
The games Makarian vs Nesterov, Grebnev vs Dreev, Najer vs Matlakov, Artemiev - Timofeev, and Dubov - Ponkratov ended in a draw; the latter game was extremely complicated and full of events.
Tournament standings after Round 8:
1-3. Andrey Esipenko, Evgeniy Najer, Arseniy Nesterov – 5 points
4. Vladislav Artemiev – 4.5
5-8. Aleksey Grebnev, Rudik Makarian, Daniil Dubov, Alexander Grischuk – 4
9. Maxim Matlakov – 3.5
10-12. Aleksey Dreev, Pavel Ponkratov, Artyom Timofeev – 3.
Round pairings 9:
Grischuk – Najer, Dreev – Esipenko, Nesterov – Grebnev, Timofeev – Makarian, Ponkratov – Artemiev, Matlakov – Dubov.
In the women's section, Valentina Gunina defeated Ekaterina Goltseva as White. In order to protect her king, Black, who had opted for the Queen's Indian Defence, decided to give up an exchange for two pawns in the middlegame. After that, however, White completely seized the initiative and methodically increased her pressure, not shying away from exchanging pieces and pawns. Valentina Gunina won on move 55.
Daria Voit defeated Olga Karmanova as White. In a slightly worse position, the chess player of St. Petersburg plunged with her queen into the enemy camp, lost the thread of the game due to time trouble, lost a pawn, and finally resigned on move 28.
Natalija Pogonina defeated Aleksandra Goryachkina as White in what happened to be a long battle. Pogonina persistently tried to convert her extra pawn in the endgame, where the position was sometimes a win for White, and sometimes a draw. Goryachkina was the last to make a mistake and White won the game on move 109.
The games Kovanova vs Garifullina, Lagno vs Charochkina and Girya vs Shuvalova were drawn.
Tournament standings after Round 8:
1. Kateryna Lagno – 6
2. Aleksandra Goryachkina – 5
3-6. Valentina Gunina, Daria Voit, Daria Charochkina, Leya Garifullina – 4.5
7-8. Natalija Pogonina, Olga Girya – 4
9-10. Polina Shuvalova, Baira Kovanova – 3.5
11. Ekaterina Goltseva – 3
12. Olga Karmanova – 1.
Round 9 pairings:
Goryachkina – Gunina, Karmanova – Pogonina, Charochkina – Voit, Shuvalova – Lagno, Garifullina – Girya, Goltseva – Kovanova.
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.
Tournament on Chess-Results
Photo gallery
Games Live (Open)
Games Live (Women)
Tournament page
Official website
Photos by Eteri Kublashvili and Vladimir Barsky
