Battle heats up for nation’s chess championship

 Anton Korobov joined Andriy Volokytin in pole position after the former drew and the latter lost in round seven after the midway point of Ukraine’s national chess championship.

Korobov couldn’t make anything happen with
white against Serhiy Fedorchuk. He reached an ending with two bishops against
Fedorchuk’s bishop-knight tandem, but decided not to test the endgame waters
despite the potential advantage his two bishops would’ve afforded.

Kharkiv’s Oleksandr Moiseenko chopped a
full point from leader Volokytin in a combative game with the white pieces.
Volokytin went on the queen-side attack, eventually giving up the exchange for
activity. After Moiseenko’s well-time kingside castle on move 27, it became evident
that Volokytin had overextended his initiative. Moiseenko calculated well
defending and took over the game. After the game, Moiseenko said had Volokytin
played the game right, it would’ve ended in a draw, but the Lviv grandmaster
ran into time trouble and couldn’t find the more accurate moves.

Mukachevo’s Zakhar Efimenko won his second
game in a row with a display of superior endgame play with black. Twenty two
year-old Yuriy Kuzubov never recovered after Efimenko’s rook to b3 on the 40th
move. The Zakarpattya-native is now only one point behind the leaders.

And Luhansk grandmaster Oleksandr
Areshchenko had a stellar game against Kharkiv’s Pavlo Eljanov. The latter ran
into trouble early, while Areshchenko kept the pressure on, not allowing
Eljanov to coordinate his pieces and develop his kingside. Once Eljanov got all
his pieces into play, it was too late for Areshchenko was overwhelmingly placed
for a decisive attack on the king.

Donetsk’s Yevhen Miroshnychenko waits for his round 7 match to begin against Oleksandr Zubov.

Former world chess champion Ruslan
Ponomariov had to settle for a draw against Yuriy Vovk, who is rated more than
100 points less than him. Ponomariov tried every trick up his sleeve but Vovk
found the correct response each time. They played to a dead draw – until their
kings only remained on the board.

Finally, Donetsk’s Yevhen Miroshnychenko won his first
match of the tournament against Oleksnadr Zubov of Mykolayiv. Miroshnychenko
defended for most of the game. In the end, he marshaled a counterattack that
forced Zubov to resign on move 49.

The 81st Ukrainian chess
championship is a single-round robin event with a 90-minute time control (plus
30 seconds per move) and a 30-minute sudden death after 40 moves.

The total prize fund is
$75,000, with $20,000 going to the winner.

Matches start daily at 3
p.m., except for Aug. 7, which starts at 12 p.m. with a rest day on Aug. 2.  

Round 8, Aug. 4, 3 p.m. Kyiv, President
Hotel

Ukraine
chess championship

1  
Serhih Fedorchuk        – Zakhar Efimenko

2  
Andriy Volokytin        – Yuriy Kuzubov

3  
Oleksandr Areshchenko  – Oleksandr Moiseenko

4  
Yuriy Vovk              – Pavlo Eljanov

5  
Oleksandr Zubov         – Ruslan Ponomariov

6  
Anton Korobov           – Yevhen Miroshnychenko