16 October 2021

Vladimir Fedoseev Catches Up With Leader at Russian Superfinal

Valentina Gunina pulled ahead in the women's event.


The Russian Championships Superfinals resumed in Ufa after a rest day.  

In the 7th round of the open tournament, Dmitry Andreikin won against Alexandr Rakhmanov as Black. According to him, "the game promised to be rather boring in the beginning". 

"However, I tried to create an attack at some point, thus giving counter chances to Alexandr, and the position became complicated at some point. I sacrificed a pawn quite hazardously, opened up the h-line, and it gave results. Not immediately, but I managed to make it to a fine endgame with the queen versus two rooks", said the two-time Russian champion. 

Black pieces were placed more harmoniously than the white ones in the endgame. Firstly, Andreikin won back a pawn and then took two extra ones. White forces were badly coordinated and couldn't resist the opponent's threats. 

The Predke vs Fedoseev encounter was decided in the endgame with rooks, white bishops and black knights. After more than five hours of play, White lost a pawn but would have kept drawing chances if he had reacted in the right way. However, Predke miscalculated in a beautiful but erroneous line and lost the second pawn, after which his position was completely hopeless. Fedoseev has become one of the tournament leaders after this win. 

The games Chigaev - Goryachkina, Esipenko - Ponkratov, Alekseenko - Matlakov, and Vitiugov - Motylev were drawn.

Standings after Round 7:

1-2. Nikita Vitiugov, Vladimir Fedoseev - 4.5
3-5. Maxim Matlakov, Dmitry Andreikin, Kirill Alekseenko - 4
6-7. Aleksandra Goryachkina, Andrey Esipenko - 3.5
8-10. Maksim Chigaev, Alexander Motylev, Pavel Ponkratov - 3
11-12. Aleksandr Rakhmanov, Alexandr Predke - 2.5.

Round 8 pairings:

Matlakov - Fedoseev
Goryachkina - Predke
Andreikin - Chigaev
Ponkratov - Rakhmanov
Motylev - Esipenko
Alekseenko - Vitiugov.

Valentina Gunina, one of the leaders of the women's event, played the quickest game of the round, having defeated Daria Voit with the black pieces in the Slav Defence.  

"We prepared this line with my coach. It seems that I managed to surprise Daria: she didn't recall how to play and started to take her pieces back to the first rank. After this, I got a big advantage", said Gunina later. 

White didn't manage to castle, which allowed Valentina to start attacking the opponent's king. Eventually, White castled short, but it was too late: Gunina destroyed the king's defence and celebrated victory on the 32nd move. 

Leya Garifullina beat Marina Guseva as White and told about her victory after the game:

- In the beginning, the game was quite difficult for me since the opponent had surprised me in the opening. I knew some things there but not really much. At some point, I decided to sacrifice a pawn (I don't know, whether it was correct or not), and it happened that Marina set her mind on catching my queen. So I gave up my bishop and rook and then double attacked her queen and rook. Eventually, I got two rooks and a knight for a queen, and my pieces checkmated her king. 

Olga Girya achieved her first victory at the Superfinal by winning against Alina Bivol with the black pieces. The players were struggling in the Open Variation of the Ruy Lopez, where Black not only successfully solved her opening problems but also got the two-bishops advantage in the middlegame and grabbed more space. White lost a pawn and didn't manage to save herself in the endgame after the queens were traded. 

Anastasia Bodnaruk broke out of the funk by defeating Alisa Galliamova with the black pieces. White missed a tactical blow in a double-edged position, after which she lost an exchange. The chess player from Saint Petersburg methodically converted her material advantage. 

The games Pogonina - Shuvalova and Kashlinskaya - Ovod ended in a draw.

Standings after Round 7:

1. Valentina Gunina - 5.5
2-3. Evgenija Ovod, Polina Shuvalova - 5
4-5. Alina Kashlinskaya, Leya Garifullina - 4
5-8. Natalija Pogonina, Alisa Galliamova, Olga Girya - 3.5
9. Anastasia Bodnaruk - 2.5
10-11. Daria Voit, Marina Guseva - 2
12. Alina Bivol - 1.5.

Round 8 pairings:

Ovod - Bodnaruk
Gunina - Galliamova
Shuvalova - Voit
Girya - Pogonina
Guseva - Bivol
Kashlinskaya - Garifullina.

The tournament is a part of the Chess in Museums international programme realised by the Chess Federation of Russia and the Elena and Gennady Timchenko Foundation. 

An exhibition featuring the chess sets from the Chess Museum is organised at the venue. The Museum's curator, Cand. Sc. History Dmitry Oleinikov conducts tours around the exposition for everyone.

The spectators are not allowed in the playing hall due to the anti-Covid measures. However, the chess fans are welcome in the commentating area where they can listen to GM Sergey Shipov in Russian. 

GMs Evgenij Miroshnichenko and Alexandr Shimanov are commentating on the tournament in English. 

Tournament on Chess-Results

Tournament page


Photos by Eteri Kublashvili