14 September 2022

Daniil Dubov Catches Up With Leader at Superfinal

Three players are in the lead share in the women's section.

Round four of the Russian Championships Superfinals among men and women is over in the city of Cheboksary. A group of young chess players from the Children and Youth Club of Mind Games "Debut" visited the tournament that day. Curator of the CFR Chess Museum, Ph.D. in History Dmitry Oleinikov, showed children around the Museum's exhibits. “Space” chess is on hot demand with local chess fans and journalists, because twice Hero of the Soviet Union, cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolaev, who had played the first game "Space vs Earth" together with Vitaly Sevastyanov, happened to be the native of the Chuvash Republic. Following the excursion, everyone could watch the game from the balcony.

Daniil Dubov has scored his first victory at the Superfinal over Arseniy Nesterov in a very interesting duel. According to the grandmaster of Moscow, it is hard to point to the exact moment where he managed to outplay his opponent, because "there are some positions that just take playing and thinking more about your moves than those of your opponent."

“Arseniy gave a very interesting treatment of the opening and, in general, he is doing a great job, so far, his games are a pleasure to watch. We talked after the game and found it hard to say exactly where he had committed a mistake, – said Dubov. – Following my capture of the c5-knight I believed to have a good position. This is when I breathed a sigh of relief as I realised to have survived the first "wave of attack". His time pressure was looming ahead, and that position was easier to play as Black. Following my capture of the b2-pawn there arose a position which took White to prove having any compensation. I did not quite see how to achieve it, neither did he come up with it over the board. However, the game turned out to be exciting as such.”

Esipenko vs. Murzin was no less spectacular a battle in the 6.Bg5 Najdorf. White seized initiative out of the opening, sacrificed a pawn, and in the middlegame there arose an exciting unbalanced position in terms of material ratio: a rook and two minor pieces for White against a queen for Black. Advantage was on Esipenko's side, who took long time in the search of opportunities to increase it. At some point, he got two rooks for a queen, grabbed a pawn, but one careless move in a severe mutual time trouble reduced all White's efforts to nothing.

Tomashevsky – Artemiev, Sjugirov – Rakhmanov, Matlakov – Chigaev, and Iljiushenok – Najer also ended in a draw.

Standings after Round 4:

1-2. Vladislav Artemiev, Daniil Dubov - 2.5 points
3-11. Maksim Chigaev, Evgeniy Najer, Maxim Matlakov, Sanan Sjugirov, Ilia Iljiushenok, Volodar Murzin, Aleksandr Rakhmanov, Andrey Esipenko, Evgeny Tomashevsky - 2
12. Arseniy Nesterov - 1.

Round 5 pairings:

Artemiev – Iljiushenok, Murzin – Tomashevsky, Rakhmanov – Esipenko, Dubov – Sjugirov, Chigaev – Nesterov, Najer – Matlakov.

In the women's section, Valentina Gunina bounced back following her two defeats, outplaying Ekaterina Goltseva as Black. White pushed her kingside pawns in the opening and decided to leave her king in the centre. Nevertheless, White's attack failed, and her positional weaknesses took a toll in the long run. When the position opened up, the black queen infiltrated into the enemy lines, and White sustained heavy material losses.

Valentina Gunina: “Today I employed the home trick prepared with the coach and then my thinking was: let the chip fall as they may (laughs). Actually, I don't feel very well, and it affects my performance, needless to say. Therefore, I am very pleased to have managed to win today. To tell the truth, it's still hard to play the classical chess, but I hope that it is going to be easier with each new victory.”

Draws were reached in the games Guseva – Girya, Pogonina – Zhapova, Ovod – Bivol, Garifullina – Galliamova, and Yakimova – Charochkina.

Standings after Round 4:

1-3. Marina Guseva, Olga Girya, Daria Charochkina – 2.5 points
4-10. Alisa Galliamova, Alina Bivol, Leya Garifullina, Yana Zhapova, Valentina Gunina, Ekaterina Goltseva, Natalia Pogonina – 2
11. Evgenija Ovod – 1.5
12. Mariya Yakimova - 1.

Round 5 pairings:

Gunina – Garifullina, Zhapova – Goltseva, Girya – Pogonina, Charochkina – Guseva, Bivol – Yakimova, Galliamova – Ovod.

The Russian Championship Superfinals among men and women take place in Cheboksary as part of the Chess in Museums project, jointly organised by the Chess Federation of Russia and the Elena and Gennady Timchenko Foundation. The tournament venue is the Chuvash State Art Museum.

Tournaments are held to a round-robin system in 11 rounds. Game days: September 11-16 and 18-22. Rest day – September 17. Each round begins at 15:00.

The total guaranteed prize fund makes 11 million rubles: 7 million rubles in the open and 4 million in the women's section.

The Superfinals are organised by the Chess Federation of Russia with support of the Russian Ministry of Sport, the Government of the Chuvash Republic, and the Elena and Gennady Timchenko Foundation.

The CFR general partner is PhosAgro. The tournament partners are Aeroflot, Akkond, Gazprombank, and Locko-Bank.

Tournament on Chess-Results (Open)

Tournament on Chess-Results (Women)

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