Marina Guseva maintains the lead in Russian Superfinals

Marina Guseva maintains the lead in Russian Superfinals

Marina Guseva maintains the lead with 4.5 points in the Russian Superfinals which resumed after a rest day in Cheboksary, Russia.

Open Section

The only decisive game in the Open Section was Chigaev – Esipenko, in which White celebrated success. This is what Chigaev had to say:

‘The credit goes to my second, IM Mikhail Popov, who had gone a long way to convince me to resort to the Trompowsky Attack yesterday. Besides, being a strong GM and also quite a classical chess player as Andrey is, it is very difficult to find anything to catch on to in the opening. Therefore, my goal was just to get some play and not get much worse. He opted for the risky move 5…Qa5 in the opening in lieu of the appropriate 5…e6 or 5…Nc6. The way it happened, Black is down a pawn in a few moves and needs to somehow show something in terms of compensation. Likewise, I’m not confident that I played strongest moves in the opening, but somehow we unexpectedly exchanged off the queens, and then, as it seemed to me, I came up with a very strong plan involving 17. h3 and 18. Nd2, rather than 18. Nd4, so as to always counter Black’s Nf5 with f4. Then, I believe, I was already winning, but in the three minutes remaining before the time control I misplayed and gave him some chances. I’m not confident about 30. f4 being a very strong move, although it is forces things and introduces more clarity. But then Andrey allowed me to cut off his king along the eighth rank, upon which I simply grabbed pawns and won the game.’

The games Dubov – Tomashevsky, Rakhmanov – Artemiev, Najer – Sjugirov, Matlakov – Nesterov, and Murzin – Iljiushenok ended in a draw.

Standings after Round 7

1-4. Sanan Sjugirov, Maksim Chigaev, Daniil Dubov, Vladislav Artemiev – 4 points
5-10. Ilia Iljiushenok, Evgeniy Najer, Maxim Matlakov, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Aleksandr Rakhmanov, Volodar Murzin – 3.5
11. Andrey Esipenko – 3
12. Arseniy Nesterov – 2.

Ladies Section

In the women’s event, Daria Charochkina, playing White against Ekaterina Goltseva, gained the two bishops and space advantage out of the opening. It was hard for Black to coordinate her pieces, she lost the exchange and resigned on move 30 in a hopeless position.

Evgenjia Ovod v Mariya Yakimova

Scoring her first victory was Evgenija Ovod, who confidently defeated Mariya Yakimova as White. Evgenija Ovod, “My opponent gave up a pawn rather early. She might have probably blundered that it could not be touched because of the checkmate from e8. And then my task was to convert extra material with precise play”.

Alina Bivol v Natalija Pogonina

Alina Bivol also outplayed Natalija Pogonina as White and said after the game:

‘This is round seven and my first victory: I think it is always a pleasure to win. We handled the opening into the Two Knights Defence, in which Black gives up a pawn in a theoretical line. In fact, White’s position is not very pleasant because Black completes development very quickly and White needs to lose more time. I think that Natalija acted precisely and managed to put some problems for me. I even wanted to offer a draw in the middlegame, but I felt that it would not be accepted even despite my two bishops advantage because knights make for more interesting play in closed positions. But then I still found the way to set my bishops free, upon which I managed to unleash a “cheapo” during Natalija’s time pressure. The game’s opening up played into my hands, and I won a few moves after passing the time control move. I think that home analysis will have many interesting revelations in store for me.’

Olga Girya v Valentina Gunina

Girya – Gunina also ended in White’s favour. In a roughly equal endgame, Black, unwilling to force a draw, left the opponent’s passed pawn untouched, which tied down her pieces later on. Girya took advantage of it and harvested a bunch of pawns to celebrate victory on move 106.

Galliamova – Guseva and Zhapova – Garifullina ended in a draw.

Standings after Round 7

1. Marina Guseva – 4.5 points
2-5. Daria Charochkina, Olga Girya, Ekaterina Goltseva, Valentina Gunina – 4
6-8. Alisa Galliamova, Alina Bivol, Evgenija Ovod – 3.5
9-10. Leya Garifullina, Natalija Pogonina – 3
11-12. Mariya Yakimova, Yana Zhapova – 2.5.

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