16th September, 2003

IT took only 10 moves in the final round of the 56th Russian Chess

Championships in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia for Peter Svidler to capture the

Russian chess crown - and for a record fourth time.

Playing top seed Alexander Grischuk in the final round, Svidler readily

agreed to the early draw after his nearest rival and joint leader,

Alexander Morozevich, took just 9 moves to draw with Vladimir Malakhov.

Both Svidler, 27, and Morozevich, 26, finished with 7 points from nine

games to tie for first place; but Svidler, having won their individual

duel in round six, took the title on tiebreak.

The popular St. Petersburg grandmaster first became national champion at

the age of 18 in 1994.� This was his fourth reign (1994, 95, 97 and now

2003) as national champion, an unprecedented record in post-Soviet Union

chess history.�

There was an eight-way tie for third on 6 points each, and the tiebreak

system also applied - not just for the proper distribution of the

prizes, but, as the Championship acts as a zonal tournament, to also

determine the top five qualifiers who will go forward to the next FIDE

World Knockout Championship in December.

Final standings: 1-2 P Svidler, A Morozevich 7/9; 3-10 V Malakhov, S

Dvoirys, V Zvjaginsev, A Motylev, A Grischuk, A Khalifman, S Volkov, E

Najer 6.

P Svidler - A Timofeev

56th Russian Ch., (3)

Sicilian Scheveningen

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 e6 6 g4 h6 7 h3 a6 8 f4 Nc6

9 Be3 Bd7 10 Qd2 b5 11 Bd3 Nxd4 12 Bxd4 Bc6 13 0-0-0 b4 14 Ne2 Qa5 15

Bxf6 gxf6 16 Nd4 Bd7 17 Bc4 h5 18 Rhf1 hxg4 19 hxg4 Qc5 20 Qe2 a5 21 Kb1

Rc8 22 b3 Ke7 23 e5 fxe5 24 fxe5 Qxe5 25 Qf3 Rh7 26 Qb7 Ke8 27 Bb5 Rd8

28 Nc6 Qc5 29 Nxd8 Qxb5 30 Qa8 Ke7 31 Nb7 Qb6 32 Nxd6 Qc6 33 Qxa5 1-0

JOHN B HENDERSON