You'll probably remember that on October 15, Peter Svidler defeated Evgeny Alekseev to tie for first at the Russian Championship Superfinal, together with Evgeny Jakovenko. Yesterday the three played the necessary playoffs and it was Svidler who won.

At Moscow's Central Chess Club the 61st Russian Championship Superfinal took place from October 3 to 15. Alekseev, Jakovenko and Svidler all ended on 7 / 11 after Jakovenko beat Vitiugov in the last round, and Svidler defeated Alekseev to also catch him. Because of the European Club Cup in Greece (where all three players participated) only yesterday the playoffs were staged, with the format of 6 games of 15 minutes plus ten second per move.

History repeated itself during these playoffs when Svidler found himself in another must-win situation before his last game with White against Jakovenko, who had taken the lead after five rounds with a 2.5 out of 3 score. Svidler was on 2/3 but he had the white pieces. In a way you could call this an Armaggeddon game! But first let's have a look at an interesting win by Jakovenko, not without a bit of luck:

And here's the decisive game of the Superfinal, and a very pretty one:

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Links:

• Official website
• Tournament games in PGN
• Playoffs in PGN