Andreikin is Russian champ
71st Russian Championship Superfinals, Satka, Russia
Aug. 24-Sept. 6, 2018 Final Standings
1-2. Dmitry Andreikin 2710, Dmitry Jakovenko 2748, 7.0/11
3. Evgeny Tomashevsky 2702, 6.5/11 4-6. Ernesto Inarkiev 2690, Vladimir Fedoseev 2707, Ian Neponiachtchi 2768, 6.0/11
7. Grigoriy Oparin 2609, 5.5/11
8-9. Alexey Sarana 2613, Daniil Dubov 2691, 5.0/11
10-11. Mikhail Kobalia 2619, Nikita Vitiugov 2730, 4.5/11
12. Denis Khismatullin 2634, 3.0/11 Average ELO 2685 Category 18 Time Control: 90 minutes for the first 40 moves then another 30 minutes for the rest of the game with 30 seconds added to your clock after every move starting move 1
The Russian SuperFinals this year was extremely competitive. Andreikin, Dubov, and Oparin took their turns at the top of the leaderboard but four rounds before the end it was Jakovenko and Andreikin fighting for the pole position. They ended up tied for first place and Andreikin was declared the champion after he won the two-game rapid (15 minutes + 10 second increment) tie-breaker with a win and a draw. Aside from the cash prize he also won a brand new car, a Renault Kaptur.
The tournament is a part of the Chess in Museums program started in 2012 by the Russian Chess Federation and supported by the Timchenko Foundation. Past Superfinals were held in Rukavishnikov Estate (Nizhny Novgorod), State Art Museum of Tatarstan (Kazan), the Novosibirsk State Museum of Local History, and the State Museum of Political History of Russia (Saint Petersburg). This year it was held in the Magnezit Palace of Culture in Satka, a small town in the Chelyabinsk region of the Southern Urals.
For some reason there was a scheduling conflict with the Sinquefield Cup in Saint Louis, USA and this caused GMs Sergey Karjakin and Alexander Grischuk to drop out of Satka. Another absentee was Peter Svidler who accepted the invitation of the Sinquefield Cup organizers to man the commentator’s booth of their tournament.
Nevertheless, with an ELO rating average of 2685 the Russian SuperFinals still qualifies as the highest-rated national championship in the world.
The winner GM Dmitry Vladimirovich Andreikin is known as a player of a very high standard and is usually mentioned as a dark horse to any competition, no matter how strong. He is part of the generation of players born in 1990, reputed to be the strongest ever — it includes names like Magnus Carlsen, Sergey Karjakin, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Ian Nepomniachtchi.
Andreikin won the 2010 World Junior Chess Championship in Chotowa, Poland and had an extremely productive year in 2012: first he finished just half a point behind Jakovenko in the European Championship (March), and then tied for first in the Russian Higher League Championship (June), the qualifying event for the SuperFinals which was held two months later. The second half of the year was his breakout period. In August Dmitry Vladimirovich won the Russian SuperFinals — he finished in a massive tie for first with Sergey Karjakin, Peter Svidler, Jakovenko, Alekseev and Potkin but won the rapid play-offs.
In 2013 Chess World Cup (Tromso, Norway) he scored another major success by finishing in second place, losing to Vladimir Kramnik in the four-game finals match 1.5-2.5. This result qualified him for the 2014 Candidates Matches, where he finished in a creditable 3rd place tie behind Viswanathan Anand and Sergey Karjakin.
In a space of four years Andreikin jumped from junior champion to playing for the world title. After those heady years Andreikin continued to play at a high level but nothing earthshaking as he went on with his life for a while, got married and had a baby. Maybe 2018 will be the start of another surge for him?
As to Andreikin’s chess style he is a pragmatic player, not considered an openings expert but with excellent technique and nerves of steel. I think the following win is typical.
Fedoseev, Vladimir (2707) Andreikin, Dmitry (2710) [E12] RUS-Ch SuperFinals Satka RUS (11), 05.09.2018 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.a3 Bb7 5.Bf4 g6
Andreikin is not a fan of opening theory and likes to play moves like this to get out of the books early.
6.Nc3 Bg7 7.e3 d6 8.Bd3 Nbd7 9.0–0 0–0 10.e4 e5 11.Be3 exd4 12.Nxd4 Re8
A known tactical theme in the King’s Indian — to break the hold on d5 Black can go for ...Re8, ...c6 and ...d5.
13.f3 c6 14.Bf2 d5! 15.cxd5 cxd5 16.exd5 Nxd5 17.Nxd5 Bxd5
Having easily achieved ...d6–d5 and activated his fearsome bishop on g7, Black already has nothing to fear.
18.Qd2 Qf6 19.Rad1 Nc5 20.Bc2 Red8!
Most people would play 20...Rad8 without thinking but Black understands than in this King’s Indian type position his rooks belong on c8 and d8. Later on you will see how important this is.
21.Qe3 Ne6
Black is targeting the b2–pawn
22.Nxe6 Bxe6 23.b4 Rac8
Now you see why the rook belongs on the c-file. Black is going for ...Rc8–c3xa3.
24.Be4
Fedoseev is an aggressive player and gives up the pawn readily in the hopes of stirring up play against Black’s back rank.
24...Rxd1 25.Rxd1 Rc3 26.Qd2 Rxa3 27.Qd8+ Qxd8 28.Rxd8+ Bf8 29.Bg3
Hoping to get in Bd6.
29...Rc3
So that in case of Bd6 he can reply ...Rc8. This is better than 29...Kg7 30.Be5+ f6 31.Bxf6+ Kxf6 32.Rxf8+ Ke5 33.b5 Keeps black forces at bay. Take note that b4–b5 is key to restraining the enemy’s queenside pawns.
30.Bb8 f5 31.Bd5
White forces bishops of opposite color.
31...Bxd5 32.Bd6 Kf7 33.Bxf8 Be6 34.Bd6 Rc8!
Forcing white’s active rook off the board. Now Black is clearly ahead.
35.Rxc8 Bxc8 <D>
POSITION AFTER 35...BC8
36.b5?
Pushing the pawn to b5 is a key move in many of the game scenarios but here it is a bad mistake, primarily because White’s light-squared bishop is no longer on the board. Fedoseev is clearly hoping for 36...Bd7? 37.Bb8 Bxb5 38.Bxa7 and the last pawn on the queenside falls.
GM Alex Yermolinsky in Chessbase website: 36.Kf2 Ke6 37.Bb8 a5 38.bxa5 bxa5 39.Ke3 Kd5 40.f4 Kc4 41.Be5 Kb3 42.Kd2 Bb7 43.g3 is soooo Dvoretsky. The black king cannot cross over to the K-side, and the game is drawn.
36...Ke8!
To his horror Fedoseev realizes that his intended 37.Bb8 Kd8 38.Bxa7 Kc7 leaves his bishop trapped in the corner.
37.Kf2 Bd7 38.Ke3 Kd8 39.Kf4 Bxb5
Facing one isolated passed pawn on the queenside White can hold the draw because of the bishops of opposite color. However, with two passed pawns it is an easy win for Black.
40.Kg5 a5 41.Kh6 Be8 42.Kxh7 Kd7 43.Bf8 b5 44.g4 fxg4 45.fxg4 b4 46.h4 Kc6 47.h5 gxh5 48.gxh5 Bxh5 49.Kh6 Kb5 50.Kxh5 b3 0–1
As to the ...Re8, ...c6 and ...d5 maneuver of Black in the King’s Indian, I’d like to share with you a little-known game played in the blitz tournament after the closing ceremonies of the 1956 World Students’ Team Championship in Uppsala, Sweden. Korchnoi won the tournament but everyone was captivated by Mikhail Tal’s brilliant series of combinative blows below. It is also said that even more impressive was that the “Wizard of Riga” played all of his moves instantaneously, leaving his opponent in a state of shock.
Szukszta, Janusz - Tal, Mihail [E86] Wch Teams U26 Upsala, 1956 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 0–0 6.Be3 e5 7.Nge2 c6 8.Qb3
Main line is 8.Qd2.
8...exd4
Everybody plays 8...Nbd7 here but Tal’s treatment is really impressive and I haven’t seen a refutation of it ever.
9.Nxd4 d5! 10.cxd5 cxd5 11.exd5 Re8 12.Kf2 Nc6!
Wow! The threat is 13...Nxd4 14.Bxd4 Ng4+ 15.fxg4 Bxd4+ 16.Kg3 Re3+ 17.Kf4 Qf6 checkmate.
13.dxc6 Rxe3! 14.Rd1
[14.Kxe3 Ng4+ 15.fxg4 Qxd4+ 16.Ke2 Bh6 17.Qc2 Bf5!]
14...Ng4+ 15.fxg4 Bxd4 16.Rxd4 Qxd4 17.Qd5 Re2+! 18.Kxe2 Bxg4+ 19.Ke1 Re8+ 0–1
White resigns because 19...Re8+ 20.Be2 Rxe2+ 21.Nxe2 Qxd5 wins the house.
The Russian team to the Batumi Chess Olympiad scheduled to take place from September 23-October 6 this year is composed of Vladimir Kramnik, Sergey Karjakin, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Dmitry Jakovenko, and Nikita Vitiugov. It is a bit awkward that the reigning Russian champion is not in the team.
Kramnik has not been playing for some time. His last big tournament was at the FIDE Candidates match tournament in March of this year and he finished in the bottom half of the tournament. Last June the former world champion took part in the Paris Grand Chess Tour Rapid/Blitz event – he was last place in the Rapid and 2nd-to-last in the Blitz.
The second board Sergey Karjakin has also not being doing well lately – for example in the Sinquefield Cup we reported on last week he was tied for last. The team reserve Nikita Vitiugov’s poor showing here in the SuperFinals is not a good omen either.
I suspect that the line-up for the Russian Olympiad team might be revamped.