Russian Superfinal: Grischuk leads, Galliomova 5.0/5

The Russian Championship Super Final for men and women is taking place from December 19th to 30th in the Moscow Central Chess Club in the Gogolevsky Boulevard. Participants are the top players by rating and qualifiers from the higher league competitions. The rate of play is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves, and then 15 minutes and a 30 second increment per move to end the game. Players cannot offer draws directly to their opponents but have to do so through an arbiter. Play starts at 15:00h local Moscow time (13:00 CET, 07:00 New York). The prize fund is US $100,000 for the men and US $40,000 for the women.

The sensation of round five was the following brief encounter:

Sjugirov,S (2612) - Svidler,P (2754) [B12]
62nd ch-RUS Moscow RUS (5), 24.12.2009
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Nf3 e6 5.Be2 Nd7 6.0-0 Bg6 7.Nbd2 Nh6 8.Nb3 Nf5 9.Bd2 h5 10.g3 a6 11.Rc1 b5 12.a4 Be7 13.Ra1 f6 14.Bf4 0-0 15.Bd3 Re8 16.h3 Bh7 17.exf6 Bxf6 18.Re1 g5 19.Be5 Rf8 20.Qd2 Nxe5 21.Nxe5 Qd6 22.Nc5 Kh8 23.c3

and the multiple threats are too much for Black. 1-0. With this victory Sjugirov moves into place four, with a performance that is 90 points better than his nominal 2612 rating.

Sanan Syugirov, with his permanent trainer Andrej Zonta

Alexander Grischuk beat Alexander Riazantsev, who is languishing with a single draw at the bottom of the table. Artyom Timofeev sacrificed two rooks for a knight an three pawns to turn what looked like a drawn game into a fine victory.

Timofeev,Arty (2651) - Khismatullin,D (2643) [B52]
62nd ch-RUS Moscow RUS (5), 24.12.2009
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Bd7 4.Bxd7+ Qxd7 5.c4 Nc6 6.Nc3 g6 7.d4 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Nf6 9.f3 Bg7 10.Be3 0-0 11.0-0 Rac8 12.b3 a6 13.a4 Qd8 14.Qd2 Qa5 15.Rfd1 Rfd8 16.Rac1 Nd7 17.h3 Nxd4 18.Bxd4 Bxd4+ 19.Qxd4 Qc5 20.Kf1 Qxd4 21.Rxd4 Nc5 22.Rb1 a5 23.Ke2 f6 24.Kd2 Kf7 25.Kc2 g5 26.Nd5 h5 27.Ne3 h4 28.Rd5 Rc6 29.Rbd1 Rdc8 30.Rf1 Rb6 31.Rb1 Rbc6 32.Rd2 Ne6 33.Kc3 Nc5 34.Nd5 Ne6 35.Rf1 Rg8 36.Ne3 Rb8 37.Nf5 Rb6 38.Rfd1 Ra8 39.Rd5 Nc7

All this is leading nowhere, and Timofeev decides that more energetic action is required: 40.Rb5 Nxb5+ 41.axb5 Ke8 42.Ra1 e6 43.Ne3 d5 44.exd5 Rd6 45.c5 Rdd8 46.Kd4 Rac8 47.Rxa5 e5+ 48.Kc4 b6 49.b4 bxa5 50.bxa5

We flip the board around to give you a feel for what it is like to face an army of passed pawns. The quickly overwhelmed the black rooks and brought home the full point. 50...Ra8 51.a6 e4 52.fxe4 Kd7 53.Nf5 Re8 54.c6+ Kd8 55.Nd6 Re7 56.Kc5 f5 57.exf5 Re2 58.Nb7+ Ke8 59.d6 Rxg2 60.d7+ Ke7 61.f6+ Kxf6 62.c7 1-0.

Dmitry Jakovenko was practically losing after 17 moves, but Nikita Vitiguov needed 64 moves to convince his opponent that further struggle was of no avail. Vitiguov joins Svidler in the 2-3 slot, half a point behind the now leading Alexander Grischuk.

Standings after five rounds

The draw ratio is now just 44% – just eleven games out of 25 without a decision, the same number as white wins. Black has won three times for a 12% ratio.

Women's section

In the women's section Alisa Galliamova won her fifth game in succession, maintaining her "dry score" and displaying a performance of theoretically 3213 Elo points. At the other end Tatiana Stepovaia has 0.0/5 points, which our ChessBase 10 cross table calculator evaluates as a 1664 performance.

Standings after five rounds

As in the men's section round five brought four wins and one draw. The statistics are now just 20% drawn games, with White winning in 52% and Black in 28% of the games. When was the last time you saw a tournament that had more black wins than draws?

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN: Men – Women The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!