Russian Higher League
Russia Championship Higher League, Yaroslavl, Russia
June 26-July 6, 2018 Final Top Standings 1-2. GM Alexey Sarana RUS 2573, GM Grigoriy Oparin RUS 2587, 6.5/9
3-8. GM Ernesto Inarkiev RUS 2684, GM Denis Khismatullin RUS 2627, GM Mikhail Kobalia RUS 2608, GM Vadim Zvjaginsev RUS 2633, GM Kirill Alekseenko RUS 2621, GM Sanan Sjugirov RUS 2663, 6.0/9
9-12. GM Alexander Motylev RUS 2659, WGM Aleksandra Goryachkina RUS 2505, GM Aleksandr Rakhmanov RUS 2627, GM Igor Lysyj RUS 2630, 5.5/9 Total of 59 Participants 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.
Never heard of Yaroslavl? Well you should be ashamed of yourself. It is a city 250 kilometers northeast of Moscow. Founded in 1010 it became part of the Grand Duchy of Moscow in 1463 which, by the 18th century expanded itself to become the Russian Empire. Yaroslavl for a long time was Russia’s second largest city ( behind Moscow) and during the Polish occupation of Moscow in 1612, became its de facto capital.
This year Yaroslavl hosted the Russian Higher League Championship where the Top 5 will gain automatic entry into the Russian Super Finals scheduled to be played Aug. 25- Sept. 5 in Satka, Chelyabinsk, Russia.
The 18-year-old Muscovite GM Alexey Sarana, a completely unknown outside of Moscow, scored 4.5/5 in the first half of the event and then coasted home with four draws to win the championship on tiebreaks against Grigory Oparin. The other qualifiers to the SuperFinals are GMs Ernesto Inarkiev, Denis Khismatullin and Mikhail Kobalia. This was exactly the same formula followed by Grigoriy Oparin in 2016 — he also scored 4.5/5 in the first half of the 2016 Russian Her League (wins against Lpzionov, Popov, Vavulin and Fedoseev, draw against Sarana) and finished with 4 draws.
Big names who failed to make the cut are several European Champions: 2017 Maxim Matlakov 2015 Evgeniy Najer 2014 Alexander Motylev 2013 Alexander Moiseenko 2011 Vladimir Potkin If you are wondering why the 2018 European Champion did not participate it is because the winner was Ivan Saric (not to be confused with Dario Saric of the NBA Philadelphia 76ers) and he is Croatian, not Russian. The 2016 European Champion Ernesto Inarkiev finished among the top 5 and qualified for the Super Finals. He has a direct style which is very attractive for the audience. Here is an example of his headlong play against the 2014 Russian Chess Champion.
Inarkiev, Ernesto (2684) — Lysyj, Igor (2630) [C48] 71st ch-RUS HL 2018 Yaroslavl RUS (8.3), 04.07.2018 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.Nc3 Bc5
Igor Lysyj wrote a book on the “Open Games For Black.” Against the Four Knights (to which this game has already transposed to) he recommends either 4... Bb4 or 4...Nd4. Of course he now avoids those lines because White may have studied his book and prepared something. 5.0–0 0–0 6.Nxe5 Nxe5 7.d4 Bd6 8.f4!
[ 8. dxe5 Bxe5 9. Bd3 Re8 10. Re1 d6 Leaves White is nothing]
8...Neg4 9.e5 Be7 10.f5
Completely in keeping with Inarkiev’s style.
10... d6 11. exf6 Nxf6 12. Qf3 c6 13.Bd3 Qb6 14.Be3
Starting an all-out attack.
14... Qxb2 15. Ne2 d5 16. g4 Ne4 17.Ng3 Nxg3 18.Qxg3 f6 19.Kh1 Qa3 20. Rf3 Rf7 21. h4 Qd6 22. Qg2 h6
23.Rg1 Bd7 24.Bf4 Qb4 25.g5 fxg5 26.hxg5 Bxg5 27.Bxg5 hxg5 28.Qxg5 Re8 29.Qh4! 1–0
Black resigns. White’s threat of 30.f6 is deadly.
As for the two other unaccounted-for years, Ian Nepomniachtchi (2010) and Dmitry Jakovenko (2012 champion) are ranked as the 4th and 6th highest rated players in Russia, respectively, and seeded directly into the Russian Super Finals.
As usual when there are this many strong players the games are well worth playing over. I particularly liked this one from the tournament winner.
Alekseenko, Kirill (2621) — Sarana, Alexey (2573) [B92] 71st ch-RUS HL 2018 Yaroslavl, RUS (3.9), 28.06.2018 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2
The original intention of the Sicilian Najdorf 5...a6 is to carry out the Boleslavsky advance of ...e7–e5. Rather than try to prevent it to 6.Bg5, this positional method popularized by the 12th world champion Anatoly Karpov actually invites Black to go ahead with the advance and then seek to destroy his position through positional means. 6...e5 7.Nb3 Be7 8.0–0 0–0 9.Re1
Karpov used to continue with 9.Be3 Be6 10.Qd2. He first stamps out all of Black’s possible counterplay with maneuvers like a2–a4–a5 followed by Nb3–c1–a2–b4–d5 and Ra1–a4–b4 and really puts the squeeze on Black. Here is one example: 10...Nbd7 11.a4 (oh, yes! as a tribute to the strength and soundness of Karpov’s opening play this was also the way the hyper-aggressive many-time candidate for the world championship GM Efim Geller would play White against the Najdorf. Considering that Geller’s attacking style is considered to be the exact opposite of Karpov’s positional play, this is praise indeed) 11...Nb6 12.a5 Nc4 13.Bxc4 Bxc4 14.Rfd1 h6 15.Nc1 Rc8 16.Nd3 Be6 17.Bb6 Qe8 18.f3 Nd7 19.Be3 f5 20.exf5 Rxf5 21.Nb4 Nf6 22.Nbd5 Nxd5 23.Nxd5 Bf8 24.b3 Qf7 25.Nb6 Rc6 26.c4 Be7 27.Qe2 Bd8 28.Nd5 Bxd5 29.Rxd5 b5 30.axb6 Bxb6 31.Kh1 Bxe3 32.Qxe3 Qc7 33.Rad1 Rf6 34.h3 Qb6 35.Qd3 Qb4 36.Kh2 Qb8 37.Re1 Rf8 38.Re4 Qc7 39.Rg4 Rf6 40.b4 Qb6 41.c5 Qc7 42.Kh1 a5 43.Rc4 Qb8 44.cxd6 Rcxd6 45.bxa5 Qd8 46.Rcc5
1–0 (46) Karpov,A (2720)- Quinteros,M (2505) Luzern 1982. 9...Be6 10.Bf3
Putting additional force on d5. Usually this is followed by Nb3–d2–f1–e3. 10...Nbd7 11.a4 Qb8
Making way for his bishop on e7 to be relocated via Be7–d8–b6(or a5) to a more active diagonal. The Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is an exponent of this approach and, being the foremost Sicilian Najdorf expert in our time, most players trust his assessment of these lines.
Another alternative is 11...Nb6 where the knight heads for c4 before white can prevent this with a4–a5. 12.h3 Rc8 13.Nd2 Bd8 14.Nf1 Bb6 15.a5 Bd4 16.Nd5
Alekseenko had this position before, but with Black. 16.Ne2 Bc5 17.Be3 b6 18.axb6 Qxb6 19.b3 a5 20.Neg3 g6 21.Nf5!? only a sham sacrifice as White can instantly win back his piece 21...Rd8 (21... gxf5?! 22.exf5 d5 23.Bxc5 Rxc5 24.fxe6 fxe6 25.Ne3 material is equal but White is obviously better because of the open Black king position.) 22.g4 Kh8 23.N1g3 Bxe3 24.Nxe3 Nc5 25.g5 Ng8 26.Bg4 f6 Black has already gained the upper hand because White’s attempt at an attack has created weak squares around his king. Rublevsky,S (2665)-Alekseenko,K (2625) Sochi RUS-chT RUS 2018 0–1 39. 16... Bxd5 17. exd5 b5 18. c3 Ba7 19.Bd2 Qc7 20.g4 Nc5 21.g5 Nfd7!
The obvious threat is ...Nd3, attacking both b2 and e1. But that is not the main idea of this move. 22.Qc2 f5! 23.b4
White cannot take the pawn now because of 23.Qxf5 Rf8 24.Qg4 Whie’s hidden weakness on f2 will come out: 24... Nb3! 25. Rad1 Rxf3! 26. Qxf3 Rf8 27. Qg3 Bxf2+ 28. Qxf2 Rxf2 29. Kxf2 Qc4 Black has a decisive advantage. Alekseenko’s solution is to drive the black knight away first so that it cannot go to b3. 23...Na4 24.Qxf5
White has out- maneuvered Black, right? He is now a clear pawn ahead, right? Not quite. 24...Rf8 25.Qg4 Nb2
The knight is not yet out of the action as Sarana swings it over to d3 to attack f2. 26.Re2 Nd3 27.Nh2?
A mistake. He had to play 27. Be3 with a very complicated game. A sample
line is 27...e4!? 28.Bxe4 N7e5 29.Qh4 g6 when anything can still happen. 27...e4!
Better than 27...Nxf2 28.Rxf2 e4 29.Qxe4 Rae8 30.Qh4 Ne5 31.Kg2 the worse is over for White. Now Black whips out a virulent attack with astonishing speed. 28.Qxe4
Not 28.Bxe4 Nxf2; or 28.Rxe4 N7e5 29.Qg2 Nxf2. 28...N7e5 29.Rf1 Qf7 30.Bg4
What else can White do? 30. Kg2 Rae8 looks even more dangerous.
30...Nxf2! 31.Rexf2 Bxf2+ 32.Kg2 Nxg4 33.Nxg4 Rae8 34.Qd3 <D>
34...Re3! Obviously overlooked by White.
35.Bxe3 Qf3+ 36.Kh2 Qg3+ 37.Kh1 Qxh3+ 38.Nh2 Qxe3 39.Qc2
Hoping to get in g5–g6 and c3–c4. Objectively speaking 39.Qxe3 Bxe3 40.Rxf8+ Kxf8 41.Nf3 Kf7 is the best defense, surviving to the endgame with equal material. However, at this level White cannot realistically expect to be able to salvage a draw here as Black’s king can get at White’s pawns much faster than White’s king can. Besides, White’s queenside pawns are in the wrong colored square and the enemy bishop can easily target them. Alekseenko chose to keep the queens on the board to improve his swindling chances.
39...g6 40.c4 bxc4 41.Qxc4 Qxg5 42.b5 axb5 43.Qxb5 Qe3 44.Qc4 h5 45.a6 Kg7 46.Qb4 Rf6 47.Qb7+ Kh6 48.Qb1 Qd4 49.Rd1 Qh4 50.Rd2 Be3 51.Rg2 Qd4 52.Nf1 Bg5 53.Nh2 Rf8 54.Qb3 Rc8 55.Rg1 Be3 56.Rf1 Qe4+ 57.Nf3 Rc1! 0–1
Alekseenko resigns because 57...Rc1 58.Rxc1 Qxf3+ 59.Kh2 Bf4+ he loses his queen and mate will follow.