9 October 2023

Round Seven Played in Tsarskoe Selo

Vladislav Artemiev has extended his lead.

The Russian Championships Superfinals resumed at Tsarskoe Selo State Museum and Heritage Site (Pushkin, Saint Petersburg). after the rest day.

In the open tournament, Vladislav Artemiev has increased his lead over his pursuers by defeating Artyom Timofeev as Black. In the middlegame, Black won the exchange and gradually converted his material advantage. The leader of the race has scored his sixth win in a row.

Second place is now with Pavel Ponkratov, who has also defeated Ivan Rozum as Black. The game was uneven: each side had advantage at different stages of the game, but after a long struggle Pavel had the last word: he managed to convert his extra pawn in the queen ending.

Andrey Esipenko defeated Evgeniy Najer as White in the Sicilian Defence with opposite-side castlings. As the grandmaster of Rostov noted after the game, it was uncomfortable for him to prepare because his opponent employs many different variations. "To be honest, I repeated the line that happened in the game, just in case. Evgeniy had zero games in that variation. It turned out that White had a better position and I had a more or less clear plan. In the end everything worked out well," said Esipenko.

Playing the white pieces, Maxim Matlakov outplayed Aleksandra Goryachkina in a test battle. A word to the grandmaster from St. Petersburg: "I think that at one point my position was very dangerous, it was obvious that all my pieces were somehow "loose", and if Aleksandra had found some kind of a tactical blow, everything could have fallen apart in two moves. I didn't see it over the board, but intuitively it feels like there must be some strong continuation. It was probably logical for me agree to the repetition of moves; when I played 23. Ngf1 I realised that it was quite risky, but I couldn't see where I was getting worse. Probably the critical moment was after 25.Ne3 bxa4 26.Ndxc4 Bb5 27.Na3 Ba6 – I want to play Qd2 and Nd1. Again I feel intuitively that Black should have had a better game, but there are so many continuations and opportunities. At some point Aleksandra seemed to have lost control, but even after 30...Rb3 the position remains unclear. And probably the last important moment is after 39.exf5. Here instead of 39...Qxf5 I liked 39...Ne7! We had a minute left, so I missed this move. In this variation Black had an easy game and it's unclear how it would have ended.

The games Lagno - Sychev and Murzin - Tomashevsky ended in a draw.

Standings after Round 7:

1. Vladislav Artemiev – 6.5 points
2. Pavel Ponkratov – 4.5
3-5. Maxim Matlakov, Evgeniy Najer, Aleksandra Goryachkina – 4
6-7. Andrey Esipenko, Evgeny Tomashevsky – 3.5
8-11. Artyom Timofeev, Kateryna Lagno, Volodar Murzin, Klementy Sychev – 2.5
12. Ivan Rozum – 2.

Round 8 pairings:

Ponkratov – Najer, Goryachkina – Esipenko, Artemiev – Matlakov, Tomashevsky – Timofeev, Sychev – Murzin, Rozum – Lagno.

In the Women's event, the duel between Shuvalova and Badelka was dramatic. The leader seemed to be on the verge of her sixth straight win. However, with time running out in a position with two extra pawns, Olga made a mistake that wiped out her advantage. Polina could have taken the lead, but she missed the strongest continuation and the game ended in a draw.

Marina Korneva and Olga Matveeva had a double-edged position with opposite-side castling, where Black sacrificed the exchange but did not pursue her plans vigorously enough and committed a serious mistake after the exchange of queens. Korneva got an overwhelming advantage and won on move 31.

Mariya Yakimova outperformed Leya Garifullina as White. In the rook ending with the white knight and the black bishop, the chess player of Tatarstan exploited her opponent's compromised pawn structure to gain material and win the game.

Natalija Pogonina has scored her first victory in this competition by defeating Valentina Gunina in a rook ending with an extra pawn.

Alina Bivol suffered her fourth defeat in a row, this time to Anna Shukhman. We are giving the floor to the winner, "I was confident in my position out of the opening, but I didn't expect to win. After 13...Rc8 I am probably worse, and then I missed 19.Qc1. In response to 19...Bd6? my opponent fortunately didn't find 20. Nc8! – which could have been unpleasant. After 20.Qc8? we transposed into a roughly even endgame, where my opponent came up with an interesting sacrifice of exchange. Then we could have forced an endgame with the opposite-coloured bishops, but she decided to play for a win. In the end I won the exchange for two pawns, and at some point White had to play accurately. I gradually eliminated the pawns, but in the end the position was probably a theoretical draw. There are simply no theoretical positions this late into the game. I managed to win thanks to the zugzwang".

The game Kovanova - Goltseva ended in a draw.

Standings after Round 7:

1. Olga Badelka – 5.5 points
2. Baira Kovanova – 5
3-4. Marina Korneva, Leya Garifullina – 4.5
5. Polina Shuvalova – 4
6. Anna Shukhman – 3.5
7-8. Valentina Gunina, Ekaterina Goltseva – 3
9-10. Alina Bivol, Natalija Pogonina – 2.5
11-12. Mariya Yakimova, Olga Matveeva – 2.

Pairings of round eight:

Gunina – Shukhman, Badelka – Bivol, Goltseva – Shuvalova, Garifullina – Kovanova, Matveeva – Yakimova, Pogonina – Korneva.

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