Debut story: candidates for the World Cup will be selected at the Superfinals of the Russian Chess Championship

The superfinals of the 78th Russian Men's Championship and the 75th Russian Women's Championship will be held in Moscow from September 30 to October 13. Vladislav Artemyev will try to defend his title for men and, if successful, will go down in history. His main competitors are the rating favorite Daniil Dubov and Andrey Esipenko. Young talents can also surprise you — Ivan Zemlyansky, Savva Vetokhin and Artyom Uskov, who successfully competed at the Junior Olympics in Colombia. Among the women's participants are the titled Valentina Gunina, Olga Girya, Anastasia Bodnaruk, Polina Shuvalova, as well as the already well-known Leia Garifullina and Anna Shukhman.

Juniors and veterans

Last year, for the first time in 29 years, the Russian chess champion was able to defend his title. In 1994 and 1995, Peter Svidler was the first, and Vladislav Artemyev won the Superfinal in 2023 and 2024. And if two years ago in Tsarskoye Selo, the representative of Kazan literally went through his rivals with a skating rink, winning the tournament ahead of schedule, then in August 2024 in Barnaul he had to play a tie-break with Andrei Esipenko. The grandmasters scored seven points each and determined the winner in two additional rapid games. Both were brilliantly won by Artemyev, who is famous for playing fast controls.

There was no such drama among the women. Ekaterina Lagno, who took the lead in the first round, was able to stay on top until the last round and became the champion of Russia for the first time in her brilliant career, although Lagno's opposition in the Altai Territory was very serious. Ekaterina beat the ranking favorite Alexandra Goryachkina, as well as the highly experienced Daria Charochkina, Polina Shuvalova, Valentina Gunina, Natalia Pogonina, Olga Girya and Bair Kovanova, who defended the championship title.

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A bright ending awaits chess fans in the last round of the "Big Swiss"

Lagno and Goryachkina did not show up for the Superfinal this time. This is easily explained by the fact that the chess players have already fulfilled their main goal for 2025 by qualifying for the 2026 candidates tournament. Alexandra did this through the FIDE Grand Prix, and Ekaterina through the "Big Swiss". Now two of our top chess players can be seen at the 2025 World Team Championship in Linares, Spain, where our team will play for the first time since 2021.

At the World Cup in Spain, six chess players (four main and two reserve) can be entered into the team. So the coaching staff needs to select four more chess players, and in many ways the Superfinal will be an illustrative story here.

Polina Shuvalova, the ranking favorite, will start the tournament with a game with three-time Russian champion, twice vice-world champion Alisa Gallyamova, who will play in the Superfinal at the age of 53. The 2023 Rapid World champion Anastasia Bodnaruk will face the 2021 Russian blitz champion Margarita Potapova in the first round, two–time world blitz champion Valentina Gunina will face 17—year-old Yana Japova, and the titular Olga Girya, who brilliantly played the "Big Swiss" in 2025, will face another legend of Russian chess – 51-summer Ekaterina Kovalevskaya. Anna Shukhman, who is in the top 45 of the FIDE women's rating at the age of 16, will also play in the Superfinal.

Maximum combat strength

The open tournament will also feature our chess prodigies, who confidently won the Under-16 World Chess Olympiad in Colombia in August. It's about Ivan Zemlyansky, Savva Vetokhin and Artyom Uskov.

"I've already played with all three of them," Vladislav Artemyev, the reigning champion of Russia, told Izvestia. — The guys are very strong in chess terms, especially Vanya Zemlyansky. I think he has a lot of potential. If everything goes well, he can rise very high and become an elite grandmaster. Personally, it will be interesting for me to compete with these three in the Superfinal. I think that the Russian Football Federation made the right decision to reward the guys for winning the U-16 Olympics. For them, this is an experience and a good motivation. In my opinion, this is better than letting someone with a rating enter the tournament.

Party ballet: how our chess players started on the "Big Swiss"

Ekaterina Lagno is in the lead in the women's tournament, and Iranian Magsudlu unexpectedly took the lead in the men's tournament.

But there is another opinion on this matter.

"I would like to see all the strongest at the Superfinal," Pavel Ponkratov, a three—time winner of the Russian Premier League, emphasized in a conversation with Izvestia. — This year, four participants of the tournament were determined by the decision of the coaching council of the Russian Football Federation. And here, in my opinion, there should be a balance between inviting young people and honored veterans. Yes, Vladimir Malakhov was called. I don't know if Jan Nepomnyashchy received the invitation. Perhaps he refused. Good. But it would be interesting to look at Alexander Morozevich or Peter Svidler. The great chess players of the past can also play, and it seems to me that the value of the Superfinal would be preserved thanks to the participation of such masters. Now, thanks to the inclusion of young people, the squad will be as combative as possible, but I would like to see the Superfinal become more famous. Although it is worth saying that Vanya Zemlyansky is already ready for this level.

The superfinals of the Russian championships are held in a round-robin system of 11 rounds with one day off. The total prize fund of the tournaments is 11 million rubles.