24 June 2015
Higher League Round 2 Results
The second round games of Russian Higher Leagues are played in Kaliningrad.
Alexander Khalifman and the young stars
Men's tournament
Five players were able to maintain the perfect score, winning their second games in a row. The experienced Mikhail Kobalia defeated the young star and third seed Vladimir Fedoseev on the first board. Alexander Rakhmanov retaliated for the young generation by upsetting Evgeny Najer. Dmitry Bocharov defeated Vadim Zvjaginsev. Ivan Popov was lucky enough to get paired with 2264-rated Alexander Shemeakin, who received a bye in the first round, and duly converted the skill difference into a point. Finally, Dmitry Frolyanov, playing Black, was superior to Konstantin Landa.
WGM Olga Girya (2486), the only women playing in the men's section, drew her game with IM Pavel Shkapenko (2431). There is no doubt that participating in such a strong and tough tournament is very useful for our national women's team member.
Women's tournament
Four draws is still not a big number, but nevertheless a marked difference with two draws of the first round! The top board game between two IMs, Ovod-Kovalevskaya, ended in a draw. Also IM Svetlana Matveeva, playing on the board 6, was unable to win as Black against 2177-rated Evgeniya Sukhareva. Other top games ended as follows:
Mirzoeva (2233) - Bodnaruk (2428) 0-1
Savina (2422) - Styazhkina (2214) 1-0
Marina Baraeva (2182) - Guseva (2410) 0-1
Kovanova (2388) - Maltsevskaya (2129) 1-0
Bivol (2354) - Protopopova (2100) 1-0
