17 October 2020

Maksim Chigaev and Valentina Gunina Become Winners of Russian Championships Higher League

The event finished in Sochi.


The Russian Championships Higher League among men and women finished in Sochi on October 17. Five best players of each event qualified for the Superfinals.

In the open event, the games Goganov - Esipenko and  Antipov - Fedoseev were drawn quite early. As it turned out after the round, these results had allowed all of them to qualify for the Russian Championships Superfinal. 

A tough struggle was going on in other games. Konstantin Sakaev needed only a victory in his game with the leader Maksim Chigaev: in case of a win, the grandmaster from Saint Petersburg would have become the winner of the tournament. Sakaev played in the opening successfully and got a visible edge, but Chigaev was persistent and ingenious in defence. He managed to hold his position and take the first place. Our congratulations to Maksim! 

Results: 


1. Maksim Chigaev - 6.5 points out of 9
2. Mikhail Antipov, 3. Vladimir Fedoseev, 4. Aleksey Goganov, 5. Andrey Esipenko - 6 points. 

Aleksandr Predke, Konstantin Sakaev, and David Paravyan have also got 6 points. It is woth to mention a good performance of Aleksandra Goryachkina (5.5 points) and Polina Shuvalova (4.5 points).

Valentina Gunina, who had secured the victory in the women's tournament with a round to go, won again. She defeated Ekaterina Goltseva to take 8 points out of 9. Bravo!

Marina Guseva is 1.5 points behind the winner. In the final round, she bested Dina Belenkaya. 

Other qualifiers to the Superfinal are Leya Garifullina (3rd place), Yulia Grigorieva (4th place), and Tatyana Getman (5th place). All of them have got 6 points as well as Ekaterina Kovalevskaya and Dinara Dordzhieva. 

Mark Glukhovsky, Executive Director of the Chess Federation of Russia: 

- We've managed to hold a serious and representative over the board event for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic started. The Russian Championships Higher League is a strong open tournament with good prizes and the qualifier for the Supefinals, which are planned to be held in December.  

The tournament was organised in observance of all medical requirements and was held in a calm atmosphere. The participants were happy to play over the board and not online. I would like to thank all the players for complying with all the requirements during the event and to congratulate the winners and qualifiers! 

Tournament on Chess-Results
  
Tournament page


Photos by Vladimir Barsky