Russian Chess Championship Superfinals

Ian Nepomniachtchi beat Mikhail Antipov with Black in Round 4 of the Russian Championship Superfinals to catch Sergey Karjakin, who drew against Maksim Chigaev, with both players on 3/4. In the women’s section Polina Shuvalova continues to demonstrate great play, this time beating Tatiana Getman in fine positional style. Polina now has a perfect 4/4, with her closest pursuers, Aleksandra Goryachkina and Natalia Pogonina, a full point behind.

The Russian Championship Superfinals were visited by FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, who gave an interview on the official Russian broadcast.

The standings after four rounds looked as follows:

The women continue to delight us with fierce battles in every game. Five of the six games of the round finished decisively, with Polina Shuvalova keeping on winning. In Round 4 she gave Tatiana Getman no chance, beating her in positional style.

Valentina Gunina continues to alternate wins and losses. She lost in Round 1, won in Round 2 and lost in Round 3. In Round 4 the pattern continued as Alina Kashlinskaya was unable to withstand Valentina’s kingside attack. It’s curious that so far all the wins in Gunina’s games have been for Black.

The only draw occurred in Girya-Garifullina, but that was also an interesting game where both players had winning chances. In the end Leya scored 2.5 points and is in clear 4th place.