19 September 2022

Sanan Sjugirov Takes Lead at the Superfinal

Valentina Gunina сaught up with Marina Guseva in the women's section.


September 19, round 8 of the Russian Championships Superfinals among men and women finished in the city of Cheboksary.
 
In the open section, Sanan Sjugirov has reached "+2" to become sole leader after defeating Maxim Matlakov as White. 
 
“I managed to get an edge in the opening. After the game Maxim said that he had recently gone over that line in which the computer showed equality. However, he must have missed something over the board,” said Sjugirov.– I don't know exactly where Maxim made a mistake, but the position is such that even if equal, Black still needs to come up with extremely precise play, which he failed. By move twenty 20, I thought I was winning or at least enjoying a substantial edge. However, later on I must have slacked my grip somewhere, but in the end I managed to outplay him yet again and finish the game in my favour.
 
Evgeny Tomashevsky discontinued his streak of draws by defeating Maksim Chigaev as White. We give floor to the winner:
 
“Today I wanted to get out of the opening with a position full of fighting potential, which is the most difficult thing to achieve these days. Of course, the English Opening suits this purpose perfectly, but I must admit that it has miles of theory on end. Overall, I should highlight that it is easier to initiate fight when the opponent is also in a fighting mood. I noted that Maksim was employing the English Opening himself, and it was clear that he is very well versed in it and that some kind of a principled continuation was to be expected. This is what happened indeed. We played a trendy line, which now enjoys certain popularity. Chigaev opted for an interesting principled variation, which had happened in the Giri - Grischuk game at the Candidates Tournament in Yekaterinburg as far back as prior to the pandemic, but since then they have practically never played like this because some easier ways have been discovered. However, it has taken nothing away from interesting position.”   
 
Black followed it with a poor exchange operation, allowing the opponent to harmoniously place his pieces, while his own forces were all over the board and lacked coordination. Tomashevsky got an edge, won a pawn and confidently pressed his advantage home.
 
Murzin – Rakhmanov, Esipenko – Najer, Artemiev – Dubov and Iljiushenok – Nesterov ended in a draw. The last game to finish saw a very difficult struggle, in which advantage was changing hands continuously. After the time control move, the scales seemed to have finally tipped in White's favour, but when carrying out the decisive attack Iljiushenok erred and allowed his opponent to exchange off queens and save the game.
 
Standings after Round 8:
 
1. Sanan Sjugirov – 5 points
2-4. Daniil Dubov, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Vladislav Artemiev – 4.5
5-9. Evgeniy Najer, Maksim Chigaev, Aleksandr Rakhmanov, Ilia Iljiushenok, Volodar Murzin – 4
10-11. Maxim Matlakov, Andrey Esipenko – 3.5
12. Arseniy Nesterov – 2.5.
 
Round 9 pairings:
 
Rakhmanov - Iljiushenok, Dubov - Murzin, Chigaev - Artemiev, Najer - Tomashevsky, Matlakov - Esipenko, Nesterov - Sjugirov.
 
In the women's section, Valentina Gunina defeated Daria Charochkina as White. In an approximately equal position with queens and minor pieces on the board, Black, in all likelihood, misplayed by trading the knight for the bishop because the resulting structure worked out in White's favour. Shortly after the trade of queens, Gunina won a pawn and the game on move 49. 
 
Playing White against Alina Bivol, Ekaterina Goltseva got a certain initiative in the opening, but was not energetic enough and missed her opponent's attack on the queenside. Bivol's attack was a success and got her an overwhelming positional and material advantage. Goltseva resigned after Black made move 36.
 
In Garifullina vs. Yakimova Black treated her light-squared bishop carelessly and had to give it up for two pawns. On achieving a winning position, Garifullina gave back a piece and emerged with an extra pawn, which she converted in a confident manner.
 
Alisa Galliamova discontinued her streak of draws by outplaying Natalia Pogonina as Black. Following her opponent's positional error in the middlegame, the chess player of Kazan demonstrated the power of two bishops in tandem with a remote passed pawn. 
 
Zhapova – Girya and Guseva – Ovod ended in a draw. 
 
Standings after Round 8:
 
1-2. Marina Guseva, Valentina Gunina – 5 points 
3-5. Alina Bivol, Alisa Galliamova, Olga Girya – 4.5
6-9. Evgenija Ovod, Daria Charochkina, Leya Garifullina, Ekaterina Goltseva – 4
10-11. Natalija Pogonina, Yana Zhapova – 3
12. Mariya Yakimova – 2.5. 
 
Round 9 pairings:
 
Girya – Garifullina, Charochkina – Zhapova, Bivol – Gunina, Galliamova – Goltseva, Ovod – Pogonina, Yakimova – Guseva.


***

 
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)

Tournament page


Photos by Eteri Kublashvili