5 October 2023

Vladislav Artemiev Pulls Ahead in Russian Championship Superfinal

Leya Garifullina has a perfect score in the Women's section.

Wednesday, October 4, Round 4 games of the Russian Championships Superfinals finished at Tsarskoe Selo State Museum and Heritage Site (Pushkin, Saint Petersburg). The symbolic first move in the Vladislav Artemiev vs. Ivan Rozum game was made by Kirill Smirnov, General Director of AO Petrocenter, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Peterburgsky Dnevnik and online media spbdnevnik.ru, and publisher of the newspaper "Vecherniy Saint Petersburg".

The number of decisive games at the tournament remains very high – 7 out of 12 games ended decisively, and only one game in the Women's section ended in a draw.

Open section:

Ponkratov - Matlakov 1/2
Esipenko – Timofeev 1/2
Najer – Murzin 1/2
Goryachkina – Lagno 1/2
Artemyev – Rozum 1:0
Tomashevsky – Sychev 1:0

Vladislav Artemiev: "It was a very tense game, and I'm still recovering from a certain shock! My games are usually less eventful, but today I had a hard time calculating many lines. As far as the opening is concerned, it was clearly in my favour – for my game against Ivan I prepared an interesting line 3.e5 Bf5 4.h4 in the Caro-Kann Defence and employed a rather fresh move 9.Be3 (there had been games with the 9.g3 move without sacrificing the h4-pawn). Here 9...Bxh4 is not the best choice for Black, but unfortunately I hadn't checked its refutation going into this game. I thought it unlikely to happen and that I would sort things out somehow in case it happened. I figured it out in the end, but I don't know if my game was ideal or not, even though I had the feeling that I had a big advantage the whole time.

12...g6 feels like the first key moment in the game. I went into a deep think for probably more than half an hour. To be honest, there were so many promising continuations that I did not know which one to start with. As a result I played 13.g4, and there was also an interesting move 13.Qc2, training guns at the e6- and g6- squares. I think White enjoyed a big advantage there, but I had to sacrifice a piece at a certain moment. It was very tempting, but in the end I settled for 13.g4 as it seemed more solid to me. I didn't want to go all out, I wanted to keep things under control. And then we played quite logically, Black's position looked extremely dangerous, but I was surprised to not find a forced win. This was a revelation to me because I thought I was winning no matter what. In the end Ivan made a mistake: instead of 21...Nxg6? more stubborn was 21...Rh6; White had a significant advantage here, but it was not all that simple yet".

Evgeny Tomashevsky: "So far my game is not going easy for me, and that's understandable: I haven't played classical chess for exactly a year. I'm focusing on coaching and analytical work now, so the lack of practice is taking its toll. I think I could have scored half a point more in each of the first three games if not for the lack of practice. What can you do in a situation like that? Keep going and gradually work yourself into good shape.

As for today's game, it is typical of modern chess. It was a tough tag of war between equality and a slightly better game. I don't think 15...Qb6 to be a good choice, because White was playing for two results after that. I'm sure that the position was objectively a draw, but the position "Queen and Bishop vs. Queen and Knight" is already unpleasant for Black. It was a typical scenario of losing such games under time pressure: Black unleashed some kind of activity and gave up a pawn, and after the time control move I managed to grind out".

Standings after Round 4:

1. Vladislav Artemiev – 3.5 points
2. Evgeniy Najer – 3
3. Aleksandra Goryachkina – 2,5
4-8. Artyom Timofeev, Maxim Matlakov, Pavel Ponkratov, Aandrey Esipenko, Evgeny Tomashevsky – 2
9-10. Volodar Murzin, Kateryna Lagno – 1.5
11-12. Klementy Sychev, Ivan Rozum – 1.

Round 5 pairings:

Sychev – Ponkratov, Rozum – Tomashevsky, Lagno – Artemiev, Murzin – Goryachkina, Timofeev – Najer, Matlakov – Esipenko.

Women's section:

Gunina – Shuvalova 1:0
Bivol – Kovanova 0:1
Shukhman – Yakimova 1:0
Badelka – Korneva 1:0
Goltseva – Pogonina 1/2
Garifullina – Matveeva 1:0

Leya Garifullina won a theoretical duel over Olga Matveeva in one of the trendy lines of the Sicilian Defence, in which the opening transposes straight into the endgame. Here's what the winner said: "During my preparation I spent much time looking into the aftermath of 20. Rxd7. It seemed to me that White could not make use of her extra pawn. However, Black had to play accurately. 24...g5 was probably not a good decision, as it gave rise to a kind of complications. I still had an extra pawn and it could have its say in the end. Otherwise it would have been difficult for White to break through; Black should have tried to provoke a2-a4 to devalue White's pawn majority on the queenside. Instead, Matveeva wanted to push the central pawns and post the knight on d4, but I managed to prevent this. And after the exchange of bishops and rooks, White seemed to have a completely winning ending".

Valentina Gunina, “I am on treatment now, and everything is difficult for me. I'm on strong medication and had a "glitch" in yesterday's game; but today I hope the coach will be happy with me! Shuvalova prepared an opening improvement (15...Be8 instead of 15...Bc6, which had happened before). However, I am not sure whether Black played correctly after that: 19...a5 seems a move in the wrong direction to me. I managed to advance my pawns and break through in the center and on the kingside. I think I managed to come up with the precise move 27.Rd6! And when I captured the b7-pawn, White was definitely doing well after that".

Standings after Round 4:

1. Leya Garifullina – 4 points
2. Baira Kovanova – 3.5
3. Olga Badelka – 3
4-5. Alina Bivol, Anna Shukhman – 2.5
6-9. Polina Shuvalova, Marina Korneva, Valentina Gunina, Ekaterina Goltseva – 1.5
10-11. Natalija Pogonina, Mariya Yakimova – 1
12. Olga Matveeva – 0.5.

Round 5 pairings:

Matveeva – Gunina, Pogonina – Garifullina, Korneva – Goltseva, Yakimova – Badelka, Kovanova – Shukhman, Shuvalova – Bivol.