2015 Russian Championship Superfinal

The Russian Championship Superfinal starts soon. Even though Grischuk and Kramnik are absent, the field is quite strong. I feel a bit sorry for Russian super-GMs; there is so much chess talent there that some players in the 2700+ club are hardly known at all. The top seed is Dmitry Jakovenko - rated a formidable 2759, ranked #12 in the world...and yet, he is rather obscure, since discussion of top Russian players tends to focus on Kramnik, Grischuk, and Karjakin. Svidler and Motylev have been around long enough that we are familiar with them. And then there is Tomashevsky, who almost won the FIDE Grand Prix. But strong players such as Khairullen (2655), Artemiev (2671), and Bukavshin (2655) are not well known. Last year, we were surprised when Lysyj won the tournament. His rating is now 2673; we will see if he continues to impress. The forecast:

Methodology