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Wednesday, 16 Dec 2020 23:02
Nepomniachtchi, Goryachkina win 2020 Russian Championship

Ian Nepomniachtchi and Aleksandra Goryachkina are 2020 Russian Champions. 

In the final round of the men's tournament, one of the leaders Ian Nepomniachtchi made a quick draw with Maxim Chigaev to wait for the result of his main competitor Sergey Karjakin, who faced Daniil Dubov. Ian said he would have been happy with any result but a draw: with fatigue accumulated by the end of the tournament, he had no desire to play a tie-break (in case Karjakin would have drawn his game). 

Daniil surprised his opponent by going for a very rare gambit line, invented by the famous chess organizer and philanthropist Oleg Skvortsov, who had uncorked this idea in a friendly game with Viswanathan Anand. Back then, the former world champion had scored a spectacular victory, but Dubov was enthusiastic about the new opening concept and asked his coach Alexander Riazantsev to look into it. Sergey Karjakin (pictured below) was not ready for such a development and quickly fell under a dangerous attack. 

To Sergey's credit, he made it through the complications, carried out a liberating d7-d5 break, and was close to equalizing. However, he did not want to fight back in an inferior endgame (where, objectively speaking, Black had good chances of making a draw) and opted for a more challenging direction, but missed spectacular tactics and found himself in a hopeless position. As Daniil Dubov won, Ian Nepomniachtchi ended up clear first a half-point ahead of Sergey Karjakin. This is Nepomniachtchi's second national title after 2010. 

As fate had it Dubov became a decisive tournament force in the final standings as in Round 9 he beat the future champion, which allowed Karjakin to catch up with Ian.

Ian Nepomniachtchi, "It is a challenging competition, in no small part due to the long pause from live chess. In general, I am not concerned about my final standings as there are other priorities, such as not to catch a virus, to get some over-the-board practice, and not to drop the rating. However, my team — coaches Vladimir Potkin and Ildar Khairullin — have done a great job predicting the upcoming openings and winning some games as early as in the opening, including the most crucial matchup with Sergey Karjakin, where we managed to uncork a novelty idea."



Final standings open:

1. Ian Nepomniachtchi – 7½/11 
2. Sergey Karjakin – 7
3. Vladimir Fedoseev – 6½ 
4. Daniil Dubov – 6½ 
5. Vladislav Artemiev – 6
6. Maksim Chigaev – 6
7. Nikita Vitiugov – 5½
8. Peter Svidler – 5½
9. Andrey Esipenko – 5
10. Maxim Matlakov – 5
11. Aleksey Goganov – 3½
12. Mikhail Antipov – 2 (withdrew after playing only 6 games)

In the women's section, Aleksandra Goryachkina defeated Tatyana Getman to catch up with the tournament sensation,  Polina Shuvalova (the Girls U19 champion started with six straight wins), who drew with Olga Girya. According to the tournament regulations a winner had to be determined in a tiebreaker featuring two games with a time control of 15+10. After both encounters were drawn it came down to Armageddon (with 5 minutes for White against 4 for Black and a draw favoring Black), which Aleksandra Goryachkina won to become the 2020 Russian champion. Alexandra also took the titles in 2015 and 2017.

Aleksandra Goryachkina: "I am happy about my tournament performance. Of course, if I had won game two of the tie-break, it would have been much better, but what happened was a nerve-racking victory instead. There is much for me to work on."  

Final standings women: 

1. Aleksandra Goryachkina – 8/11
2. Polina Shuvalova – 8
3. Alexandra Kosteniuk – 6½
4. Marina Guseva – 6½
5. Alina Kashlinskaya – 6½
 6. Leya Garifullina – 6½
7. Alisa Galliamova – 6
8. Natalija Pogonina – 6
9. Olga Girya – 4
10. Valentina Gunina – 3½
11. Yulia Grigorieva – 2½
12. Tatyana Getman – 2 

The tournament is a part of the Chess in Museums program, which has been carried out by the Chess Federation of Russia and the Elena and Gennady Foundation since 2012.  

The organizers are the Chess Federation of Russia and the Timchenko Foundation. The tournament is supported by the Russian Ministry of Sports. The general sponsor of the Russian national teams is the Federal Grid Company Unified Energy System (FGC UES). The CFR general partner is PhosAgro.   

Text: ruchess.ru

Photo: Eteri Kublashvili and Vladimir Barsky