10 September 2022

Russian Championships Superfinals Officially Opened in Cheboksary

A drawing of lots ceremony was held.

Saturday, September 10, the Chuvashia Republic capital city kicked off the 75th and 72nd Russian Championship Superfinals among men and women respectively. The ceremony took place in the concert hall of the Chuvash State Philharmonic Hall.

The Philharmonic Hall and the Chuvash State Opera and Ballet Theatre soloists opened the artistic part of the ceremony with the song "Sky of Chuvashia", which also included showing a republic-dedicated video.

Afterwards, the Head of the Chuvash Republic Oleg Nikolaev, Executive Director of the Chess Federation of Russia Mark Gluhovsky, Deputy of the Russian Federation State Duma and Head of the Organising Committee Anatoly Aksakov, and many-time World Champion and Deputy of the Russian Federation State Duma, Vice-President of the Chess Federation of Russia Anatoly Karpov greeted the participants and thanked organisers and partners of the event.

Following the speeches delivered by the officials, the Chuvash State Philharmonic Hall artists performed a fragment from the "12 Chairs" musical and brought out to the stage easels with sketches by Gennady Kozlov for the drawing of lots. Holding the ceremony was chief arbiter of the competition IA Boris Postovsky and a well-known sports journalist, TV commentator, Merited Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation Gennady Orlov, while a young Chuvash chess player Lana Aksakova was there to assist him.

The drawing of lots ceremony assigned participants with the following numbers:

Open Tournament:

1. Andrey Esipenko, 2. Evgeny Tomashevsky, 3. Vladislav Artemiev, 4. Volodar Murzin, 5. Aleksandr Rakhmanov, 6. Daniil Dubov, 7. Maksim Chigaev, 8. Evgeniy Najer, 9. Maxim Matlakov, 10. Arseniy Nesterov, 11. Sanan Sjugirov, 12. Ilia Iljiushenok.

Round 1 pairings:

Esipenko - Iljiushenok
Tomashevsky - Sjugirov
Artemiev - Nesterov
Murzin - Matlakov
Rakhmanov - Najer
Dubov - Chigaev

Women’s Tournament:

1. Natalija Pogonina, 2. Ekaterina Goltseva, 3. Valentina Gunina, 4. Yana Zhapova, 5. Olga Girya, 6. Daria Charochkina, 7. Alina Bivol, 8. Alisa Galliamova, 9. Evgenija Ovod, 10. Mariya Yakimova, 11. Marina Guseva, 12. Leya Garifullina.

Round 1 pairings:

Pogonina - Garifullina
Goltseva - Guseva
Gunina - Yakimova
Zhapova - Ovod
Girya - Galliamova
Charochkina - Bivol

The ceremony's artistic part continued with the large-scale vocal and dance item and showing a videos about the Central Chess Club in Moscow and the CFR Chess Museum.

The heart of the opening-dedicated musical ceremony was performance by the Merited Artist of the Russian Federation and a virtuoso pianist Boris Berezovsky. The famous musician performed works by Chopin, Scriabin, and Prokofiev.

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The Russian Championship Superfinals among men and women take place in Cheboksary as part of the Chess in Museums project, jointly organised by the Chess Federation of Russia and the Elena and Gennady Timchenko Foundation. The tournament venue is the Chuvash State Art Museum.

Tournaments are held to a round-robin system in 11 rounds. Game days: September 11-16 and 18-22. Rest day – September 17. Each round begins at 15:00.

The total guaranteed prize fund makes 11 million rubles: 7 million rubles in the open and 4 million in the women's section.

The Superfinals are organised by the Chess Federation of Russia with support of the Russian Ministry of Sport, the Government of the Chuvash Republic, and the Elena and Gennady Timchenko Foundation.

The CFR general partner is PhosAgro. The tournament partners are Aeroflot, Akkond, Gazprombank, and Locko-Bank.