Andrei Volokitin and Kateryna Dolzhykova are crowned champions of Ukraine. The 90th open and 81st women’s Ukrainian championships, 10-player round-robin tournaments, took place from December 8-17, 2021, in the Scientific Library of Yaroslav the Wise National Law University, Kharkiv.

Following his strong performance in the European Team Championship, Volokitin completed the tournament undefeated and scored 6/9 to win his third national title. The resident of Lviv repeated his success of 2004 and 2015.

The champion started with four draws, but in Round 5, he scored a crucial victory over his main competitor the top-rated Yuriy Kryvoruchko (pictured below) that gave him a great boost. Heading into the final round a half-point ahead of Alexander Moiseenko and Yuriy Kryvoruchko, Andrei did not leave it to chance and secured gold by defeating Yuri Kuzubov with black pieces.

Krivoruchko also did his best in the final round beating Spartak Vysochin with black to claim silver. Moiseenko drew his last game and gave Kirill Shevchenko a chance to catch up. The talented youngster did not miss this opportunity as he ground down Volodimir Onischuk in a heavy piece endgame and clinched bronze thanks to better Sonneborn-Berger over Moiseenko.

Final standings open:

The eighth-rated Katerina Dolzhykova caused a minor sensation in the women’s event, earning her second national title. She previously won this event back in 2011. The champion demonstrated truly fighting chess, making only two draws in nine games. It really paid off as Kateryna scored 6 points out of 9 and came out on top despite two defeats.

Olga Babiy and Olena Martynkova finished a half-point behind the champion, with the former taking silver as the winner of their direct encounter.

Final standings women:

Official website: ukrchess.org.ua/

Photo: official website