Karjakin and Nepomniatchi tie for 1st at the Russian Superfinal |
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| Wednesday, 22 December 2010 | ||||
 Sergey Karjakin (left) and Ian Nepomniatchi (right) fighting against the Chess Terminator (at the Opening Ceremony) Photo courtesy of Maria Fominykh, ChessPro Russia is the only country in the world that can easily hold a 12-player national round robin of the XIX category, i.e. with an average rating of participants above 2700. Except for the absence of Kramnik (who was playing in London), most of the other top grandmasters have taken part. Peter Svidler has been leading the tournament rather convincingly, and it looked like he has a good chance to become the Russian Champion for the 6th time in his career. However, after Nepomniatchi managed to upset him with White in round 9, it became obvious that the younger generation is taking over. This has been proved once again during the last round, when Peter Svidler and Alexander Grischuk quickly ended their game in a draw (in the case of a win one of them would have been tied for gold). Both Ian Nepomniatchi and and Sergei Karjakin have had a great year in chess. Ian won the Russian Top League and the European Championship. Sergei was victorious at Poikovsky and tied for 1st at the Tal Memorial. In terms of rating progress: Ian is up 75 points (from 2658 in Jan 2010 to 2733 in Jan 2011). Sergei is up 56 points (from 2720 to 2776) and should be #5 in the world on the next rating list. The gap between them and another top talent born in 1990, Magnus Carlsen, is closing (he is up 4 points, from 2810 to 2814). Two more interesting analogies: in both the women's and men's section 7 points out of 11 was enough for tying for 1st. Also, both leaders of the 2nd Russian teams at the Olympiad (Nepomniatchi and Pogonina) ended up sharing the 1st place at the corresponding Superfinals. Feel free to make your own conclusions. Full standings: 1-2: Karjakin, Nepomniatchi - 7/11 3-4: Svidler, Grischuk - 6.5/11 5-6: Malakhov, Vitiugov - 5.5/11 7-10: Tomashevsky, Potkin, Kournosov, Jakovenko - 5/11 11-12: Zvjagintsev, Khismatullin - 4/11 P.S. The winner of the Superfinal will be determined in a 2-game rapid tie-break match. UPDATE: Both rapid games ended in a draw. In Armageddon (6 min vs 5), a draw is counted as a win for Black, Nepomniatchi drew the game with Black and became the Russian 2010 Champion. Congratulations! 
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 22 December 2010 ) | ||||
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