Russian Chess Championship

The super final of the Russian Chess Championship is approaching the finish line in Moscow. Grandmaster YURI RAZUVAEV tells about the events that took place from the fifth to the seventh round.

Fifth round. A turning point in the tournament's plot. The debutants, who had so far successfully played with the favorites, had a hard time. Alexey Dreev gave a substantive lesson in the art of positional play to his opponent Alexey Korotylev. In a fashionable variant of the Slavic defense, Dreev veered off the beaten path already on the seventh move, using an interesting novelty. Korotylev was unable to find a reliable way of the equation. White's pressure slowly but surely grew, which was not at all hampered by numerous exchanges. After the control 40th move, almost all the black pieces were locked, and further resistance became pointless. An important victory allowed Dreev to become a leader.

Peter Svidler and Alexander Grischuk played a calm Rossolimo variation in the Sicilian Defense, but the game was very tense. Grischuk managed to get a full game, and the early agreement to a draw can be explained by the tournament strategy of the young grandmasters, who, in my opinion, should, together with Garry Kasparov, become the main competitors in the fight for medals at the finish of the championship.

In the fifth round, Garry Kasparov had a difficult task. He had black pieces against Vladimir Epishin. The experienced St. Petersburg player plays very reliably and tries not to take risks in this tournament. And in his game with Kasparov, Epishin built a pawn wall, behind which he could calmly expect peace negotiations. Kasparov was noticeably nervous and made attempts to escalate the game, sometimes quite risky ones, but his opponent calmly brought the game to the desired draw.

Of the other games in the fifth round, the one in which Artem Timofeev and Alexander Morozevich met should be highlighted. In the opening, 19-year-old Kazan Timofeev gained an advantage, but blundered a tricky horse fork and found himself on the verge of defeat. Stubborn defense and a lot of luck helped the debutant avoid defeat, and Morozevich was never able to win his first victory in the tournament.

Sixth round. Kasparov-Dreev. A fundamental fight. The tournament fate at the start was dramatic and difficult for the 13th world champion. Almost every game has constant time troubles and missed opportunities. The diagnosis is obvious - very bad form. In such cases, experienced pros calmly drift into a draw and wait for the next tournament. However, Kasparov always accepts the challenge of fate and continues to fight. And this time he played the sharpest option against leader Dreev, which he himself wittily called the “anti-Moscow gambit.” This somewhat extravagant name has a simple explanation. White, with the help of a pawn sacrifice, seizes the initiative in the Moscow variation of the Slavic Defense. Dreev rightfully has a reputation as the world's greatest expert on these intricate variations of the Slavic defense. The party developed very intensely. On move 15, Dreev used an unexpected innovation and sacrificed a rook. The game has become extremely tense. Perhaps Black's 18th move was inaccurate, but this will only be clear after numerous analyses. In the game, after a brilliant tactical skirmish, a difficult endgame arose on the board. Black had three pawns for the sacrificed knight and a chance for a draw. Having gained the advantage, Kasparov this time acted with precision and energy and won a crucial victory on the 59th move.

Grischuk - Timofeev. Meeting of the two youngest participants in the tournament. In the Grunfeld defense, the Muscovite used a very promising novelty and seized the initiative, but the Kazan debutant once again showed himself to be a good tournament fighter. He defended himself calmly, and this fierce battle ended in a draw with a perpetual check. After the sixth round, there were two leaders: Garry Kasparov and Alexander Grischuk each had a plus two.

Seventh round. Vitaly Tseshkovsky - Kasparov. Their first meeting took place back in 1978. Then Tseshkovsky became the champion of the USSR, and Garry Kasparov was the youngest debutant in the history of the country's championships. And now, 26 years later, the rivals played out a real “Sicilian vendetta” on the board. The sharpest Scheveningen variation, which served Kasparov faithfully throughout his entire career and about which he, together with his coach Alexander Nikitin, wrote a classic monograph. On the 16th move, Tseshkovsky “cashed out” his specially prepared novelty. The position got out of control, and in the press center at the Rossiya Hotel, the grandmasters tried unsuccessfully to understand the complications using computers. On the 18th move, Kasparov made a mistake, and with a series of brilliant moves, Tseshkovsky received a powerful attack on the black king. The utmost tension remained until the end of the game, and any mistake by one of the opponents could be decisive. On the 26th move, Tseshkovsky could have taken the game into a calm direction, and most likely in this case the game would have ended in a draw, but he continued his attack on the king. Kasparov defended himself well and found the only opportunities to obtain counterplay. As a result, a “one-rook” endgame arose on the board - Black had an extra rook, and Tseshkovsky admitted defeat on the 40th move.

Svidler-Korotylev. The St. Petersburg grandmaster showed off his bright, unconventional play and ended the game with a spectacular attack on the king. This victory allowed Svidler to get closer to the leaders and join the fight for prizes. The Morozevich-Grischuk game ended in a draw after a calm game. After seven rounds, Alexander Grischuk and Garry Kasparov are ahead, with 4.5 points each, but the latter played one game less.

Rooks are not changed at the crossing