The 74th Russian Superfinal Chess Championship ended October 21st in the capital city of Ufa in Russia’s Republic of Bashkortostan with a narrow victory for GM Nikita Vitiugov.
The Category 18 (average Elo: 2677) single round robin event had a strong playing cast of Russian players made up of GMs Dmitry Andreikin (2728), Nikita Vitiugov (2727),Andrey Esipenko (2720), Kirill Alekseenko (2710), Vladimir Fedoseev (2704), Maxim Matlakov (2682), Alexandr Predke (2666), Pavel Ponkratov (2659), Aleksandr Rakhmanov (2657), Maksim Chigaev (2639), Alexander Motylev (2624), and Aleksandra Goryachkina (2602), the only female participant.
The victory was the 34-year old Vitiugov’s first Russian Championship after fifteen tries, attesting to the difficulty of gaining a slot in the Superfinal – one must pass through a series of qualifying tournaments. The closest Vitiugov came to pocketing a Superfinal gold was in the 70th edition in 2017 where he lost on tie break to GM Peter Svidler. Prior to this, he took the silver on better tiebreaks in the 72nd edition.
The final standings: 1. Vitiugov, 7; 2. Matlskov, 6½; 3-4. Andreikin, Fedoseev, 6; 5-9. Esipenko, Ponkratov, Motylev, Predke, Alekseenko, 5½; 10-11. Rakhmanov, Goryachkina, 4½; 12. Chigaev, 4.
Vitiugov,N (2727)-Andreikin,D (2728) [E20]
Ufa (5.3) 2021
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 Bb4+ 5.Nc3 0-0 6.Bg2 dxc4 7.0-0 Nc6 8.Re1 Be7 9.e4 Nb4 10.Ne5 c5 11.d5 exd5 12.exd5 Bf5 13.Nxc4 Nc2 14.Re5 Bg6 15.d6 Bxd6 16.Nxd6 Nxa1 17.Bg5 Nc2 18.Nd5 Kh8 19.Ne4 Qb8 20.Bxf6 gxf6 21.Re7 Nb4 22.Nxb4 cxb4 23.Qd4 Qd8 24.Qxf6+ Kg8 25.Nd6 Rc8 26.Nxc8 Qd1+ 27.Bf1 Rxc8 28.Rxb7 a5 29.h4 Qd8 30.Qe5 h5 31.Be2 Qf8 32.Bf3 Rc5 33.Bd5 Kh7 34.Rd7 Qc8 35.Qe7 Rc1+ 36.Kg2 Qa6 37.Bxf7 Qf1+ 38.Kf3 Qh1+ 1-0
Matlakov,M (2682)-Chigaev,M (2639) [B87]
Ufa (4.1) 2021
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bc4 e6 7.Be3 Be7 8.Bb3 b5 9.a3 0-0 10.Qe2 Bb7 11.f3 Nbd7 12.0-0-0 Rc8 13.Qe1 Nc5 14.Ba2 Qc7 15.Kb1 Ba8 16.g4 Nfd7 17.h4 Nb6 18.g5 Nca4 19.Nxa4 bxa4 20.g6 hxg6 21.h5 g5 22.Rg1 Qc5 23.Qd2 Nc4 24.Bxc4 Qxc4 25.Bxg5 f6 26.Bh6 Rf7 27.Bxg7 Rxg7 28.Rxg7+ Kxg7 29.Qg2+ Kf8 30.h6 Ke8 31.h7 Kd7 32.Qg7 f5 33.h8Q Rxh8 34.Qxh8 Bb7 35.exf5 1-0
Andreikin,D (2728)-Alekseenko,K (2710) [E16]
Ufa (4.5) 2021
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 Bb4+ 5.Nbd2 0-0 6.Bg2 b6 7.0-0 Bb7 8.Ne5 Bd6 9.cxd5 exd5 10.Ndc4 Re8 11.Bg5 Be7 12.Rc1 c6 13.Ne3 h6 14.Bxf6 Bxf6 15.f4 Nd7 16.Nf5 Nf8 17.e4 Ng6 18.Qh5 dxe4 19.Bxe4 Re6 20.Nxh6+ gxh6 21.Bxg6 Qxd4+ 22.Rf2 1-0
Rakhmanov,A (2657)-Andreikin,D (2728) [D31]
Ufa (7.4) 2021
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bf4 Bd6 6.Bxd6 Qxd6 7.e3 Ne7 8.Bd3 Bf5 9.Nge2 Nd7 10.0-0 0-0 11.Nf4 Nf6 12.Qf3 Qd7 13.Qg3 Rae8 14.Rfe1 Ng6 15.Be2 Bg4 16.Bxg4 Nxg4 17.h3 Nh6 18.Nd3 Ne7 19.Nc5 Qc8 20.Qd6 b6 21.Nd3 Nhf5 22.Qf4 f6 23.b4 g5 24.Qg4 h5 25.Qxh5 Kg7 26.Qg4 Rh8 27.g3 Rh6 28.Kg2 Reh8 29.Rh1 Rxh3 30.Qxh3 Rxh3 31.Rxh3 Qa6 32.Nc1 Qa3 33.N1e2 Qxb4 34.Rah1 b5 35.Rh7+ Kg6 36.Rh8 Qc4 37.a3 a5 38.Ra8 b4 39.axb4 axb4 40.Ra4 c5 41.Rd1 cxd4 42.exd4 Nc6 43.Rc1 Ncxd4 44.Nxd4 Nxd4 45.Na2 Qb3 0-1
Rakhmanov,A (2657)-Fedoseev,V (2704) [A14]
Ufa (5.5) 2021
1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 e6 4.0-0 Be7 5.c4 0-0 6.b3 d4 7.e3 c5 8.exd4 cxd4 9.Ne5 Nfd7 10.Nxd7 Qxd7 11.f4 a5 12.d3 a4 13.Na3 Bc5 14.Bb2 Nc6 15.Nc2 Qd6 16.Qe1 Rb8 17.Bxc6 bxc6 18.b4 Bxb4 19.Nxb4 c5 20.Qe5 Qxe5 21.fxe5 cxb4 22.Rf4 a3 23.Bc1 f6 24.h4 Rb7 25.Rb1 h5 26.Rb3 Bd7 27.Bxa3 Rfb8 28.Bc1 fxe5 29.Re4 Ra8 30.a3 bxa3 31.Rxa3 Rf8 32.Rxe5 Rb1 33.Re1 Rf3 34.Bd2 Rb2 35.Bf4 Rff2 36.Ra6 Rg2+ 37.Kh1 e5 38.Rxe5 Rgc2 39.Re1 Bg4 0-1
*******
PUZZLERS
WHITE TO MOVE, MATE IN TWO.
The key to our last problem is 1.Qxc7!, and Black’s futile options are: 1…Bb5/xa4/b7/a8/d7/e8 2.Re3#; 1…Rd7/d8 2.Rc3#; 1…Kc5 2.Bb4#; 1…Kxe5 2.Bc3#.
