Kateryna Lagno Grabs Lead in Women's Superfinal
Arseniy Nesterov and Evgeniy Najer are ahead in the open section.
The Russian Championships Superfinals have resumed after a rest day. In Round 7, the symbolic first move in the A. Goryachkina vs D. Voit game was made by Mikhail Dyrov, General Director of the Stroyberg Group.
The Superfinal debutant Rudik Makarian scored his first win in the open tournament defeating the experienced Aleksey Dreev as Black. In a rook and minor pieces ending, Black managed to grab the initiative, break through to his opponent's back ranks with the king and outplay him in a technical manner.
The Nesterov vs Artemiev, Grischuk vs Grebnev, Ponkratov vs Matlakov, Esipenko vs Najer, and Timofeev vs Dubov ended in a draw.
Tournament standings after Round 7:
1-2. Evgeniy Najer, Arseniy Nesterov – 4.5 points
3-5. Vladislav Artemiev, Andrey Esipenko, Alexander Grischuk – 4
6-8. Aleksey Grebnev, Rudik Makarian, Daniil Dubov – 3.5
9. Maxim Matlakov – 3
10-12. Aleksey Dreev, Pavel Ponkratov, Artyom Timofeev – 2.5.
Round 8 pairings:
Najer – Matlakov, Dubov – Ponkratov, Artemiev – Timofeev, Makarian – Nesterov, Grebnev – Dreev, Esipenko – Grischuk.
In the Women's Championship, Kateryna Lagno outplayed Olga Karmanova as Black to become the sole leader as her main competitor Aleksandra Goryachkina drew Daria Voit.
Leya Garifullina, who was leading at the start, suffered her second defeat in a row. Playing White against Ekaterina Goltseva, she voluntarily chose the worst ending and then completely misplaced her dark-squared bishop. Black trapped this bishop and gradually converted her extra piece.
Daria Charochkina and Olga Girya opted for the Nimzo-Indian Defence. White's play out of the opening was overly sharp, and Black, with the advantage of two bishops, overtook the initiative. However, in a mutual time pressure, Girya made a serious mistake, her bishop could never get out of the pin and Black was forced to give up material. Charochkina went on to win with confidence.
The games Pogonina vs Gunina and Shuvalova vs Kovanova ended in a draw.
Tournament standings after Round 7:
1. Kateryna Lagno – 5.5 points
2. Aleksandra Goryachkina – 5
3-4. Leya Garifullina, Daria Charochkina – 4
5-7. Daria Voit, Valentina Gunina, Olga Girya – 3.5
8-11. Natalija Pogonina, Polina Shuvalova, Ekaterina Goltseva, Baira Kovanova – 3
12. Olga Karmanova – 1.
Round 8 pairings:
Gunina – Goltseva, Kovanova – Garifullina, Girya – Shuvalova, Lagno – Charochkina, Voit – Karmanova, Pogonina – Goryachkina.
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.
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Photos by Eteri Kublashvili and Vladimir Barsky
