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The following 10 players competed for the title of Russian champion in the round-robin tournament:
| № | Player | City | Rank | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Points | SODOS | Placement |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fionin Grigoriy | St. Petersburg | 7d | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 4 | ||
| 2 | Dinerstein Alexandr | Kazan | Зp | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 2 | ||
| 3 | Nemlij Igor | Kazan | 6d | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10 | ||
| 4 | Kajmin Vjacheslav | Moscow | 6d | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 5 | Chernykh Anton | Moscow Region | 6d | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 6-7 | |
| 6 | Kulkov Andrej | Kazan | 6d | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 8 | |
| 7 | Shakhov Kim | Moscow | 5d | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 6-7 | |
| 8 | Shikshin Ilja | Kazan | 1p | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 1 | ||
| 9 | Surin Dimitrij | St. Petersburg | 6d | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 3 | ||
| 10 | Kovaleva Natalia | Chelyabinsk | 5d | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 9 |
Result table (in Russian)
Ilja Shikshin 1p came out as the undefeated winner of the tournament. The most intense game of the tournament was between Ilja and runner-up Alexandr Dinerstein 3p. Both players engaged in close combat right from the beginning and the fighting did not cease until the small endgame. In the end Ilja turned out victorious by 1,5 points.
However, that was not Ilja‘s closest game because he defeated 16-year-old shooting star Vjacheslav Kajmin by a mere half point. This game most likely also set a new world record for the shortest official game that was counted out: It finished in only 92 moves!
(The previous record allegedly stood at 121 moves, from a 2003 game between Cho U and Takemiya Masaki.)
After a little mirror-go, the game started off well for Vjacheslav after Ilja missed to play keima directly at 25 and instead opted to push at 23. This allowed White to sacrifice the right side and take control of the centre.
The exchanges that happened next in the upper left corner increased White's advantage.
Black's response at 41 enabled White to switch to the side with the combination of 42 and 44.
A few moves later, however, with victory in his grasp, White was too soft in endgame, owing to a slight misjudgement, and played the losing move 64 which led to his half-point loss.
In hindsight, White should have gone in deeper and staked the game on the life-and-death of the invasion.
Discussion of the full game in EGF Academy
Congratulations, not only to Russian champion Ilja, but also to Vjacheslav for setting a new world record and creating this story!
