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TOURNAMENT STANDINGS
Russian Championship Superfinal Tournament
Ian Nepomniachtchi7.5/11(+5 -1 =5)[games]
Sergey Karjakin7/11(+5 -2 =4)[games]
Vladimir Fedoseev6.5/11(+2 -0 =9)[games]
Daniil Dubov6.5/11(+4 -2 =5)[games]
Vladislav Artemiev6/11(+3 -2 =6)[games]
Maksim Chigaev6/11(+3 -2 =6)[games]
Nikita Vitiugov5.5/11(+1 -1 =9)[games]
Peter Svidler5.5/11(+1 -1 =9)[games]
Andrey Esipenko5/11(+2 -3 =6)[games]
Maxim Matlakov5/11(+3 -4 =4)[games]
Alexey Goganov3.5/11(+1 -5 =5)[games]
Mikhail Antipov2/6(+0 -2 =4)[games]
*

Chessgames.com Chess Event Description
Russian Championship Superfinal (2020)

The 73rd Russian Championship Superfinal was held at the Central Chess Club in Moscow, Russia from 5-16 December 2020, with a rest day on 11 December. Organizer: the Russian Chess Federation and the Elena and Gennady Timchenko Foundation, with the support of the Ministry of Sports. Sponsors: Rosseti FGC UES, PhosAgro PJSC, and others. The event was a 12-player round-robin, and the total prize fund (Open and Women) was 10 million rubles (~136,000 dollars). Time control: 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 30 more minutes till the end of the game, with 30 seconds added per move from move 1. A tie for first place would be split by two 15 min + 10 sec Rapid games and, if the score was still tied, a 5 vs 4 Armageddon game. Games started at 3 pm. Tournament director: Mikhail Kobalia. N games played: 61 (since Antipov tested positive for Corona after Round 6 and had to withdraw).

No playoff was necessary: Ian Nepomniachtchi won with 7.5/11, his second Russian championship title.

                   Elo   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2
 1 Nepomniachtchi  2784  * 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 1  7½
 2 Karjakin        2752  0 * ½ 0 1 ½ 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 1  7
 3 Fedoseev        2674  ½ ½ * 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½  6½
 4 Dubov           2702  1 1 0 * ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½  6½
 5 Artemiev        2711  ½ 0 ½ ½ * 0 ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1  6
 6 Chigaev         2619  ½ ½ ½ 1 1 * ½ ½ ½ 0 0 1  6
 7 Vitiugov        2720  ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ 1 ½  5½
 8 Svidler         2723  ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ 1  5½
 9 Esipenko        2686  0 ½ ½ 0 0 ½ ½ ½ * ½ 1 1  5
10 Matlakov        2698  0 0 0 ½ 0 1 ½ ½ ½ * 1 1  5
11 Goganov         2594  0 ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 0 ½ 0 0 * ½  3½
12 Antipov         2611  0 0 ½ ½ - - ½ - - - ½ *  2
Category: XVIII (2690). Chief arbiter: Alexander Tkachev

Official site: https://ruchess.ru/en/news/all/ian_...
Chess-Results: https://chess-results.com/tnr542624...
Chess.com: https://www.chess.com/news/view/nep...
ChessBase: https://en.chessbase.com/post/russi...
Chess24: https://chess24.com/en/read/news/ne...
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY9...
TWIC: https://theweekinchess.com/chessnew...
FIDE: https://ratings.fide.com/tournament...
Wikipedia article: Wikipedia article: Russian Chess Championship#2020

Previous: Russian Championship Superfinal (2019). Next: Russian Championship Superfinal (2021). Women's section: Russian Championship Superfinal (Women) (2020)

 page 1 of 3; games 1-25 of 61  PGN Download
Game  ResultMoves YearEvent/LocaleOpening
1. Vitiugov vs V Artemiev  ½-½212020Russian Championship SuperfinalB45 Sicilian, Taimanov
2. A Goganov vs Svidler  ½-½252020Russian Championship SuperfinalD85 Grunfeld
3. Nepomniachtchi vs M Matlakov 1-0392020Russian Championship SuperfinalD35 Queen's Gambit Declined
4. V Fedoseev vs M Chigaev  ½-½342020Russian Championship SuperfinalD90 Grunfeld
5. Dubov vs A Esipenko 1-0362020Russian Championship SuperfinalE06 Catalan, Closed, 5.Nf3
6. M Antipov vs Karjakin  0-1452020Russian Championship SuperfinalC50 Giuoco Piano
7. Karjakin vs A Esipenko  ½-½572020Russian Championship SuperfinalC42 Petrov Defense
8. M Chigaev vs Dubov  1-0372020Russian Championship SuperfinalB31 Sicilian, Rossolimo Variation
9. M Matlakov vs V Fedoseev 0-1342020Russian Championship SuperfinalC45 Scotch Game
10. Svidler vs Nepomniachtchi  ½-½252020Russian Championship SuperfinalB90 Sicilian, Najdorf
11. V Artemiev vs A Goganov  ½-½442020Russian Championship SuperfinalA36 English
12. M Antipov vs Vitiugov  ½-½402020Russian Championship SuperfinalB90 Sicilian, Najdorf
13. Dubov vs M Matlakov  ½-½482020Russian Championship SuperfinalD37 Queen's Gambit Declined
14. A Esipenko vs M Chigaev  ½-½402020Russian Championship SuperfinalC78 Ruy Lopez
15. V Fedoseev vs Svidler  ½-½412020Russian Championship SuperfinalD85 Grunfeld
16. Nepomniachtchi vs V Artemiev  ½-½312020Russian Championship SuperfinalC79 Ruy Lopez, Steinitz Defense Deferred
17. A Goganov vs M Antipov  ½-½412020Russian Championship SuperfinalD97 Grunfeld, Russian
18. Vitiugov vs Karjakin 0-1422020Russian Championship SuperfinalC67 Ruy Lopez
19. Karjakin vs M Chigaev  ½-½282020Russian Championship SuperfinalC84 Ruy Lopez, Closed
20. M Matlakov vs A Esipenko  ½-½312020Russian Championship SuperfinalE06 Catalan, Closed, 5.Nf3
21. Svidler vs Dubov  ½-½402020Russian Championship SuperfinalC78 Ruy Lopez
22. V Artemiev vs V Fedoseev  ½-½782020Russian Championship SuperfinalA28 English
23. M Antipov vs Nepomniachtchi 0-1302020Russian Championship SuperfinalB90 Sicilian, Najdorf
24. Vitiugov vs A Goganov 1-0282020Russian Championship SuperfinalD39 Queen's Gambit Declined, Ragozin, Vienna Variation
25. A Goganov vs Karjakin  ½-½422020Russian Championship SuperfinalE02 Catalan, Open, 5.Qa4
 page 1 of 3; games 1-25 of 61  PGN Download
  REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2)  

Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 2 OF 2 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Dec-19-20
Premium Chessgames Member		  MissScarlett: <GAME OF THE YEAR 2020 nominations: Dubov vs Karjakin | SENSATIONAL>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ye...

Dec-19-20
Premium Chessgames Member		  Tabanus: I asked CG to add also

[Event "Russian Championship Superfinal"]
[Site "Moscow RUS"]
[Date "2020.12.15"]
[EventDate "2020.12.05"]
[Round "10"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[White "Nikita Vitiugov"]
[Black "Maxim Matlakov"]
[WhiteElo "2720"]
[BlackElo "2698"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O Nxe4 5. d4 Nd6 6. dxe5 Nxb5 7. a4 Nbd4 8. Nxd4 d5 9. exd6 Nxd4 10. Qxd4 Qxd6 11. Qe4+ Qe6 12. Qd4 Qd6 13. Qe4+ Qe6 14. Qd4 Qd6 1/2-1/2

which was rejected as a duplicate of Nakamura vs Carlsen, 2020.

Dec-20-20  Sokrates: Thanks for the link, <MissScarlett>. A fantastic game in the old romantic style. What a Christmas starlight to give the world in these dark times.
Dec-21-20  Pedro Fernandez: My great <Tabanus>, this is the 'class' of tournaments where the Soviet world champions ''temblaban'', but it was mandatory participate there. Arrive in the first five places it was you did it fine,...for the World champion. To win, it was the glory!

Let's suppose Carlsen participating there, what do you thing?

Dec-21-20
Premium Chessgames Member		  Tabanus: <Pedro> I would expect a >2800 TPR, so 7.5 points, with a draw between him and Nepo :)

The one missing game is <still> not here, sigh. On the other hand, the database has many duplicate games that <should> not be here.

Dec-21-20
Premium Chessgames Member		  AylerKupp: <<Tabanus> I asked CG to add also ... which was rejected as a duplicate of Nakamura vs Carlsen, 2020.>

Interesting, I didn't know that. Philosophically speaking, do you think that games should be classified/rejected as duplicate if the have the exact same moves but played by different players?

This could be complicated because, possibly depending on the database, sometimes the game's pgn header shows that the game was played by the same players but their names are spelled slightly (or perhaps not so slightly) differently.

And should two games be considered duplicate if they have the same number of moves and arrive at the same final position but there is one or more transpositions of moves in the game?

I found a tool called pgnscanner but the links to it indicate that the site can't be reached. And what would a good approach be when you want to add a game to a large database? I would think that checking the game's moves against each game in a large database would be a time consuming operation. When I was building a chess game database (alas, never finish) I was considering calculating and adding a cryptographic hash value to each game, and then it would be relatively fast to verify the new game's hash value to the hash values of all the games in the database. To detect false positive game hash matches (which should be a small number if there are no malicious entries) the games involved would then be examined move by move and the player's names and any other data in the game's header (e.g. date and site when/where the game was played), and using the Soundex algorithm to detect phonetically similar player names and sites. By the time it passed all these automatic checks a really small number of duplicate candidates should remain and the final determination of duplicates could realistically be based on human visual examination.

Do you know how <chessgames.com> checks for and detects duplicate games? Clearly not something as thorough as what I described above if it didn't detect that two games with the same moves were played by different players.

Dec-21-20
Premium Chessgames Member		  Tabanus: <AylerKupp> All the games in a tournament should be included, whether the moves have been played before or not.

The duplicate games to be deleted are the <real> duplicates, those by the same players of the same event. CG has many.

<Do you know how <chessgames.com> checks for and detects duplicate games?> AFAIK only by checking the moves. Not players, event, date, or anything else.

Dec-21-20
Premium Chessgames Member		  Tabanus: Also rejected:

[Event "Russian Championship Superfinal (Women) Playoff"]
[Site "Moscow RUS"]
[Date "2020.12.16"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Shuvalova, Polina"]
[Black "Goryachkina, Aleksandra"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "2456"]
[BlackElo "2593"]
[EventDate "2020.12.16"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O Nxe4 5. d4 Nd6 6. dxe5 Nxb5 7. a4 Nbd4 8. Nxd4 d5 9. exd6 Nxd4 10. Qxd4 Qxd6 11. Qe4+ Qe6 12. Qd4 Qd6 13. Qe4+ Qe6 14. Qd4 Qd6 15. Qe4+ 1/2-1/2

Without the game it's not possible to make a good report. Missing games also affect CG's standings tables.

Dec-22-20
Premium Chessgames Member		  HeMateMe: nine draws for Peter Svidler, a many times former champion. well, he has nothing to prove to anyone.
Dec-22-20  Pedro Fernandez: Even for <Alekhine> or <Fischer> (my # 1, 2 in my Power Ranking, resp.) It woulod have very hard to win this powerful Tournament. Capablanca, ''El Imbatible'', couldn't!
Dec-22-20  Pedro Fernandez: I mean 'it would have been'...
Sorry.
Dec-22-20  Pedro Fernandez: Yeah, my great <HMM>. I thing he is making too much. As you know very well, he is now a Chess 24 journalist.
Dec-22-20  Pedro Fernandez: Yeah, my great <HMM>. I thing he is making too much. As you know very well, he is now a Chess 24 journalist.
Dec-22-20  Pedro Fernandez: I apologize for my bad redaction because of I'm writing with my cell. Incredibly all of my three PCs need reparation.
Dec-22-20  Pedro Fernandez: Certainly Artemiev, Duvob and Fedoseev are strong players, more or less as GM Firouzja. However, all of them are very far from the couple Car play.
Dec-24-20  Pedro Fernandez: Merry Christmas for all our Community!
Dec-29-20  Pedro Fernandez: <Dubov-Nepomniachtchi, RCSSF 2020>

It was chaildest Nepo's sequence on the queenside? Yes or Not?

Dec-30-20  AdolfoAugusto: I believe my friend Messiah is happy today. Lately (at least in the past two or three events) Carlsen has been vulnerable... Tired? Not motivated? Definetly his oponents have been playing unafraid... and his level/quality of play does not seem so distanced from the rest of the elite... I expected a return of form after his second place in last event, but today he was playing catch up to Dubov, and didn't manage to stir things up and win on demand as he is used to.
Dec-30-20  Messiah: <AdolfoAugusto: I believe my friend Messiah is happy today. Lately (at least in the past two or three events) Carlsen has been vulnerable... Tired? Not motivated? Definetly his oponents have been playing unafraid... and his level/quality of play does not seem so distanced from the rest of the elite... I expected a return of form after his second place in last event, but today he was playing catch up to Dubov, and didn't manage to stir things up and win on demand as he is used to.>

I am not in the most excellent mood that's imaginable, partly because I still wait for someone to spank him consistently in classical time controls. Probably I'll stand in the queue for a good 10-20 years, or slightly more. For me, quicker chess 'variants' (there must be a better word) are by magnitudes less interesting, although there can be a modest, but definitely existing excitement in watching them. I completely understand anyone who favours this type of play.

In the terrible chat of ch*ssb*mb they said afternoons spent on tanning, and a very specific girlfriend had the deteriorating effect.

Apr-01-21  macer75: Why wasn't Carlsen in this?
Apr-01-21
Premium Chessgames Member		  beatgiant: <macer75>
At a wild guess.... Maybe because Carlsen isn't Russian?
Apr-02-21  carpovius: Carlsen recently applied for Russian citizenship.
Apr-04-21
Premium Chessgames Member		  beatgiant: <carpovius>
Is this a belated April Fool's joke, or are you a member of the special operations squad that kidnapped him?
Apr-06-21  carpovius: <beatgiant> last Thursday I saw Magnus exiting Russian embassy in Oslo with his new passport in the left hand surrounded by guys of Russian special operations squad. He happily smiled...
Apr-28-21  WorstPlayerEver: It is not unlikely; Russian chess has little future, Alek was their desperate hope. Nepo only makes it look like Russia is still important.

If the Russians are no longer in the top, then they lose their grippe on the FIDE. The KGB would be desperate.

For the Russians chess is also a possibility to have their spies present at many locations. Chess is a nice extra cover for such operations.

They could use Carlsen to create many chess clones. In that case Nepo will be champ and Carlsen soon retires as chess teacher in Russia.

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