Russian Championship: Four Tied for First Entering the Last Round
Thursday, December 14, 2017 at 12:22AM
Dennis Monokroussos in 2017 Russian Championship

Vladimir Fedoseev is not going to look back on this tournament fondly if he doesn't somehow end up winning. Despite his 4-0 start, and having a clear lead with two rounds to go, he has lost three games from rounds 6-10, and is now in a four-way tie for first entering the last round. He had White against Peter Svidler in round 10 and a position that was impossible to lose if he would have settled for a draw.

Unfortunately for him, but happily for Svidler fans and lovers of last-round drama, he tried to mix things up with 37.f5. There was no good reason for this: the position didn't justify the winning attempt and he would have entered the last round in great shape: half a point clear of his closest pursuers and facing the bottom seed and tailender in the last round (albeit with Black). Instead, his reward was a position where Svidler had some chances, initially small though they were, and when Fedoseev finally cracked with 63.Ra5+ Black went on to win.

Svidler thus caught up with Fedoseev at 6/10, and so did Nikita Vitiugov (with a draw against Daniil Dubov) and Vladimir Malakhov (who beat Sergey Volkov). In the last round Svidler will have White against Malakhov, Vitiugov has Black against Volkov, and as already mentioned Fedoseev has Black against Romanov. And if all this isn't enough, three players are half a point behind: Evgeny Tomashevsky (White vs. Sanan Sjugirov), Alexander Riazantsev (White against Maxim Matlakov), and Dubov (also White, against Ernesto Inarkiev). All six last-round games feature at least one player who might end up the Russian champion!

Article originally appeared on The Chess Mind (http://www.thechessmind.net/).
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