<GM Tatiana Kosintseva , WGM/IM Nadezhda Kosintseva , WGM Natalia Pogonina , WGM/IM Alisa Galliamova-Ivanchuk , WGM Marina Romanko , WFM Valentina Gunina , WGM/IM Elena Zaiatz , WGM Tatiana Stepovaia-Dianchenko , WGM Anastasia Bodnaruk and WGM Maria Manakova >

Hmm... Not sure if this qualifies as full Sofia rules or not, but this is what the official regulation has to say on the issue:>

<III. [...] The Superfinal participants are forbidden to negotiate draws. A draw offer can only be made through the Chief Arbiter.>

Yes <DCP23>, not as strict as the full 100% enforcement of the Sofia rules per say... In last year's "Russian Chess Championship Superfinals" [ Russian Superfinals (2008) ] (Oct 2-16), in Moscow we had 10 games drawn in 29 moves or less out of 66 games played in total. :) So, not quite as rampant an occurrence as some of the lower echelon Russian Chess events. Just thought to mention it in passing that it can happen (draws taking place under 30 moves or less). As the Men's and Women's Superfinals are always hard fought events playing for the honor in victory in one of the most prestigious Russian tourneys held! :D

<DCP23: <Mal: <We should wait until <DCP23> gets a chance to review all of this in terms of any FIDE titles for the women player's above not 100% complete.>> [...]

Mal, everything is correct except Romanko who is also an IM.>

Ah yes! Now I'll have to check where I got that from (CG.com, BIDMONFA, or FIDE).

Thanks, as always, <DCP23> for your corrections and observations in these important matters. ;)

<Chessgames Bookie: <malthrope> Thanks for the info on the women's section. We have added a bet: [ Russian Women's Championship Superfinal: Winner ]>

Many thanks <ChessBookie> :)

Ah yes, the 'Spassky-Korchnoi' match on the website "The Chess Federation of the republic of Kalmykia" [ raw link: http://chess-rk.ru/ ]. I should have known! ~lol~ Works like a charm and now added to <Current Chess Events> in my Profile! ;)

Thanks again <kspiteri> :)

1) For the pairing <Kosintseva vs Kosintseva>: under/over 10 moves

2) Difference in the final standing between Tatiana Kosintseva and Nadezhda Kosintseva

I^m a bit astonished to see the highly esteemed Natalia Pogonina playing there. Good luck to her!!

Hehehe... They don't make it easy for us do they <ChessBookie>? ;)

There's one stop shopping over at "ChessPro" with the full list of pairings (for both men & women): http://chesspro.ru/_events/2009/sup...

It's clear the T = Tatiana and H = Nedezhna which can verified from the 1st round pairings and results (where Tatiana lost).

Hope that helps as the last thing we want are obstacles for you! Which would mean much less fun for us... :(

Happy Holiday's! :D

Seasonal Best, - Mal

However, as today is <Christmas> day and we've now got just less than 14 hours before Round #6 betting closes down completely. If you could please put the extra effort into paying off all the bets from yesterday (which were stamped with a settlement date of Dec 24th), so that those who won, having bet in some cases literally everything they had, can at least participate in the conclusion of Round #6 betting which closes down early tomorrow (at 6 AM on Saturday). There is no need telling you what a grinch the Loanshark can be at times! ~lol~ In closing, although the Leaderboard was also updated this morning (Fri, 05:26 AM) per its normal running sequence it also contained no new tabulations generated from the previous figures posted the day before... Thus, it too has remained completely unchanged. :(

Happy Holiday's! :))

Season's Best, - Mal

PS: <whiteshark: Russian Women's Championship Superfinal

1) For the pairing <Kosintseva vs Kosintseva>: under/over 10 moves>

FYI: <arifattar> reported the following on the Russian Championship Superfinal (Women) (2009) tourney link page.

<arifattar: Natalia [Pogonina] tweeted last night that she has been suffering from high fever and had to be hospitalised.>

Of course we wish her all the best and a speedy recovery. :)) It's possible that she has withdrawn from the tournament and is now unable to play her last two games (in Rounds 8 & 9). Since she has completed more than half of her schedule they would be both considered as <"unplayed games"> and thus wins would be credited to her two remaining opponents. I'm sure more details will suface shortly but just wanted to bring this to your immediate attention.

Natalia withdrew officially from the Russian Superfinals yesterday (Dec 27). She went to the hospital via an ambulance. Just wanted to make that 100% clear. The game against Stepovaia was never played and was decidedly *not* a forfeit in the pure sense of the word.

More details can be found here on
Pogo's Twitter page: http://twitter.com/Pogonina

I'd suggest you simply refund her bets from round #8 (which has been tagged: "Lose - discard ticket") and round #9 altogether. There was never a forfeit registered as she was already officially out of this tourney.

Let's all wish Natalia Pogonina well! :D

As a result, bets on Russian Women's Championship: Rd 9: Zaiatz vs Pogonina have been refunded as Pogonina has pulled out of the tournament.

About the bet Russian Women's Championship: Rd 8: Pogonina vs Stepovaia -- We had it on authority that the game ended 0-1 after 0 moves so the payoff action was normal. We will have to confirm that Stepovaia was not awarded a point for the game, in which case the payoff will have to be reversed from Stepovaia winning to a refund.

Also: Another typical SNAFU, some bets on tomorrow's Kosintseva T vs Kosintseva N game (the game itself as well as the over/under) were accidentally refunded. I decided to grade these bets "no action" and issued a full refund in advance of the game (as opposed to re-opening the bets and causing confusion). Apologies.

You're welcome <ChessBookie> :))

<Chessgames Bookie: After a more careful examination of the facts the wager Russian Women's Championship: Rd 9: Kosintseva T vs Kosintseva N should be simply refunded as suggested by malthrope. It was not a valid wager as those "in the know" knew the result of the game in advance.>

Yes, I avoided going in that direction altogether. ;) The fact that she officially withdrew prior to the game being played (due to the nature of her medical emergency) and that the games were never played (neither considered as 'forfeit' wins) was all the evidence needed. ;)

In addition...

<All people with tickets on this game receive full refunds (even if you discarded the ticket, it's OK, it will reappear in your list.) [...]>

Just wanted to let you know that I'd $300 bet on Pogo but only $200 of it was refunded? I have both a mental image of this bet as well as a distinct memory of it (as I did not discard this bet, but instead left in my betting pool). Thought this should be mentioned just in case it's some kind of 'bug' in the system that needs to be altered or fixed?! The remaining $100 owed really doesn't bother me... However, if it's a system wide failure then you'll need to address it. ;)

One other thing...

<Also: Another typical SNAFU, some bets on tomorrow's Kosintseva T vs Kosintseva N game (the game itself as well as the over/under) were accidentally refunded. I decided to grade these bets "no action" and issued a full refund in advance of the game (as opposed to re-opening the bets and causing confusion). Apologies.>

This bet: Russian Women's Championship: Rd 9: Kosintseva T vs Kosintseva N: Over/Under ...purely from the sporting point of view will be of great interest! :D

Especially when considering their overall record playing against one another...

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches...

Is six draws so far and no game yet played between the two exceeds 10 moves! ~lol~ :P

Is six draws so far and no game yet played between the two exceeds 10 moves! ~lol~ :P>