Open Section:
The third round of the Russian Team Chess Championship 2015 proved to be a close affair with as many as 3 matches ending with a 3.5-2.5 scoreline and the ‘Yamal’ vs ‘Rook’ match finishing in a 3-3 draw.
The match between ‘Lada’ and ‘Siberia’ turned out to be closer than expected with Lada going down with the narrowest of margins. Untitled Alexander Predke (2533) of ‘Lada’ made a real feast of this match with a nice victory over 2700+ GM Anton Korobov. However, with Jakovenko and Bocharov winning their respective games for Siberia and the rest of the games ending in draws, Siberia overcame Lada 3.5-2.5.
In the remaining ‘heavyweight’ matches, ‘University’ defeated ‘Malachite’ 3.5-2.5 while ‘Bronze Horsemen’ came out on top against ‘SHSM – Our Heritage’ with the same scores.
After 3 rounds, ‘University’ and ‘Siberia’ lead the pack with a total of 6 match-points each.
Women’s Section:
The central battle of Round 3 in the Women’s Section – ‘Boavista’ vs ‘SDYUSSHOR SHSH’ – finished in a fighting 2-2 draw with all the games turning out to be decisive. The ‘University’ team took full advantage of this draw as they overcame ‘Grozny’ and joined Boavista and SDYUSSHOR at the top of the table.
Meanwhile, the clash of the titans ‘Ugra’ vs ‘SHSM – Our Heritage’ ended in a comfortable 3-1 victory for the latter. GM Gunina and IM Kovalevskaya scored two important points for ‘SHSM’ with wins over WGM Pogonina and IM Guseva respectively.