Moscow too strong for Saint Petersburg

Ian Nepomniachtchi: On the winning team.

Gazprom sponsorship enabled the 22nd match between Russia's two main cities to go ahead this year in Saint Petersburg. Moscow, on paper the stronger side on all ten boards, won with a late surge but the home team tied the first set of games and pushed the capital close in the second and final round.

The natural board ones for each team were occupied elsewhere (Peter Svidler from St.Petersburg and Moscovite Alexander Grischuk were playing in the World Cup final), but five of Russia's top ten were still present.

Board	col.	Saint Petersburg	Rating	R1	Rating	Moscow	col.
1	B	Nikita Vitiugov	2726	0-1	2737	Alexander Morozevich	W
2	W	Evgeny Alekseev	2662	½-½	2718	Ian Nepomniachtchi	B
3	B	Konstantin Sakaev	2609	½-½	2716	Dmitry Jakovenko	W
4	W	Ildar Khairullin	2642	½-½	2711	Alexei Dreev	B
5	B	Evgeny Romanov	2639	1-0	2710	Vladimir Malakhov	W
6	W	Alexander Khalifman	2627	½-½	2692	Ernesto Inarkiev	B
7	B	Maxim Matlakov	2630	½-½	2688	Alexander Riazantsev	W
8	W	Vasily Emelin	2568	½-½	2682	Boris Grachev	B
9	B	Alexander Shimanov	2565	½-½	2666	Vadim Zvjaginzev	W
10	W	Valery Popov	2545	½-½	2637	Evgeny Najer	B
		Saint Petersburg		5-5		Moscow

A good first day for Saint Petersburg. However, the underdogs were eventually overcome on the lower boards in the return leg.

Board	col.	Saint Petersburg	Rating	R2	Rating	Moscow	col.
1	W	Nikita Vitiugov	2726	1-0	2737	Alexander Morozevich	B
2	B	Evgeny Alekseev	2662	½-½	2718	Ian Nepomniachtchi	W
3	W	Konstantin Sakaev	2609	½-½	2716	Dmitry Jakovenko	B
4	B	Ildar Khairullin	2642	½-½	2711	Alexei Dreev	W
5	W	Evgeny Romanov	2639	½-½	2710	Vladimir Malakhov	B
6	B	Alexander Khalifman	2627	0-1	2692	Ernesto Inarkiev	W
7	W	Maxim Matlakov	2630	0-1	2688	Alexander Riazantsev	B
8	B	Vasily Emelin	2568	0-1	2682	Boris Grachev	W
9	W	Alexander Shimanov	2565	½-½	2666	Vadim Zvjagintsev	B
10	B	Valery Popov	2545	0-1	2637	Evgeny Najer	W
		Saint Petersburg		3.5-6.5		Moscow

So Moscow won 11.5-8.5 over the two rounds.

The rate of play was: 90' (+30") then 30' (+30").

Here again the rule of no draw offers until the first time control was applied. Maybe the Russians are showing the way to what will become standard everywhere in the near future?

Official site: www.russiachess.org