Russian Superfinal: Final Day & Results |
Written by Natalia Pogonina | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sunday, 28 November 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Photo courtesy of Anna Burtasova, russiachess.org
The first game to finish during the final round was the critical match-up between Alisa Galliamova and Tatiana Kosintseva - it ended in a draw in 19 moves, leaving both players with 7 points out of 11. Nazi Paikidze (she had 6.5/10) couldn't handle the pressure and self-destructed with White shortly after that. Now a lot depended on Natalia Pogonina - she has sacrificed a piece for two pawns and initiative vs Tatiana Shadrina and desperately needed a win to join the leaders. In a few hours the game has transposed into a tricky endgame where Natalia had a chance to create a small rook endgame masterpiece (see move 53 of the game Shadrina-Pogonina in r.11).
Black got a queen vs White's pawn + rook. This endgame is very hard to win for Black, and many grandmasters have failed to do it before. However, eventually Natalia managed to trick her opponent and get the whole point. By that time the tie-break scores have been calculated. Natalia came 1st (37.75), Alisa Galliamova - 2nd (37.5), Tatiana Kosintseva - 3rd (35.5).
Final Standings (Russian Superfinal)
According to the Regulations, the 1st and 2nd players were to compete in a mini-match (two 15m+10s) games an hour after the end of the round. Being extremely exhausted after nearly 6 hours of play, Natalia couldn't withstand the pressure of her fresh opponent: after having escaped in the 1st game, she lost the 2nd one with White. Therefore, Alisa Galliamova retained the title, while Natalia got silver and Tatiana - bronze. Congrats to the winners!
Report by Anna Burtasova (story, nice pics) Photo album by Maria Bolshakova
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 28 November 2010 ) |
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