The Russian Team Championships took place May 1-10 at the Hotel Zhemchuzhina in Sochi. The open competition (Premier League) was a 9-team round-robin, whereas the women’s event was held in a different format – a 9-round Swiss tournament. Both competitions saw the triumph of the rating favourites.

Mednyi Vsadnik headed by Nikita Vitiugov (with Maxim Matlakov, Kirill Alekseenko and Andrey Esipenko on second, third and fourth boards respectively) simply crushed the competition, winning all the matches and sealing the title with a round to spare.

The team from St-Petersburg survived just one tense moment in the encounter with KPRF in Round 4 but eventually prevailed thanks to the victory of Vladimir Fedoseev over Sergey Rublevsky.

Moscow Chess Team turned in a very solid performance but after losing to Mednyi Vsadnik had no realistic chances for gold and finished second. Gogolevsky, 14 took bronze.

Final standings:

1. Mednyi Vsadnik – 16 (team points)
2. Moscow Chess Team – 13
3. Gogolevsky, 14 – 12
4. KPRF – 9
5. Wildberries Molodezhka – 7
6. Mikhail Botvinnik School – 5
7. Ladya – 5
8. SShOR – 3
9. Kimmeria – 2

The women’s competition was pretty much a carbon copy of the open tournament as the Moscow Chess Team that boasts of Kateryna Lagno, Alexandra Kosteniuk and Polina Shuvalova in its lineup cruised through the tournament also scoring nine victories. Southern Ural-1 and Ugra earned silver and bronze respectively.

Final standings:

1. Moscow Chess Team – 18 (team points)
2. Southern Ural-1 – 15
3. Ugra – 13
4. SShOR-1 – 11
5. Moscow Region – 11
6. Kimmeria – 10
7. Southern Ural-2 – 10
8. Youth of Moscow – 9
9. SShOR-2 – 9
10. Amazonki ADDA – 9

Photo: Vladimir Barsky