Alas, even wins against both Karjakin and Nepomniachtchi weren t enough for Daniil to earn a medal. He finished fourth, but thrilled spectators with his creative play and desire to fight in every game. We can t wait to see him online in the Airthings Masters, which starts on 26th December, as well as in the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee from January 16th.
Dubov played some fine games but missed out on first place after losing to Vladimir Fedoseev in the penultimate round - he said he didn t regret his choice to take risks, since wins for Ian and Sergey meant a draw wouldn t have been enough to fight for the title | photo: Eteri Kublashvili, ruchess.ru
With an interesting rook ending. Is it winning?
30.Rd2 31.a4 Ra2 32.Kg2 f5 33.Rc8 [33.c4!? with the idea 33.Rxa4 34.Kh3 Rxc4 35.f4+ Kxh5 36.Rxf5+ Kg6 37.Rxa5]
33.Rxa4 34.Rc5 Ra2 35.Kf3
36.Ke3 Kg5 37.f3 Kxh5 [37.Ra3 38.g4]
38.Kf4 [Threatening Kxf5 and mate after Kf6.]
38.Kg6 39.Rc6+ Kg7 40.Kxf5 [with a decisive advantage.]
40.Rf2 41.Rc7+ Kf8 42.f4 Rf3 43.g4 a4 44.c4 a3 45.Ra7 Rc3 46.Kf6 Ke8 47.c5 Rc4 48.f5 Rxg4 49.c6 Kd8 50.Rxa3 Kc7 51.Rh3 1-0
Sergey Karjakin and Vladislav Artemiev
At the next board, Sergey Karjakin, also playing white, prevailed against Vladislav Artemiev.
37.Qe2 Nf5? [Better was 37.Qc5 38.Re6 Ng8 39.Rg6+ Kh8 and Black still holds.]
€29.90
A sharp Grünfeld
The final tournaments of the Russian National Championships, played at the Central Chess Club in Moscow, are coming to an end. Twelve male and twelve female players are competing in the tournaments dubbed as Superfinals.
Before the ninth round, Ian Nepomniachtchi, the rating favourite, was alone in the lead. He had to face the very dangerous Daniil Dubov though, and he ended up losing the full point. His attempt to make a positional exchange sacrifice in a not-so-familiar variation of the Grünfeld Defence turned out to be a complete failure. Dubov went for an attack, and Black’s position on the kingside was soon in ruins.
€29.90
Karjakin beats Svidler
Peter Svidler spent too much time looking for ways to balance the position out of the opening. Finding himself with little time on the clock, he failed to correctly assess the position and made a serious, albeit not immediately obvious, mistake. Karjakin, on the other hand, correctly evaluated the consequences of his rival’s choice and went on to show a beautiful-looking final attack.
Karjakin,Sergey (2752) - Svidler,Peter (2723)
73rd RUS-ch Superfinal 2020 Moscow
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Qc7 8.Bxf6 gxf6 9.Qd2 Nc6 10.0-0-0 b5 11.Kb1 Nxd4 12.Qxd4 Be7 13.f5 Bd7 14.Qd2