The Russian Chess Championship has taken various forms.

Winners by year (men)

Imperial Russia

In 1874,

Emanuel Schiffers Emanuel (Emmanuel) Stepanovich Schiffers (; – ) was a Russian chess player and chess writer. For many years he was the second leading Russian player after Mikhail Chigorin. Schiffers parents emigrated from Germany. He was born in Saint Pet ...

defeated Andrey Chardin in a match held in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

with five wins and four losses. Schiffers was considered the first

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n champion until his student,

Mikhail Chigorin Mikhail Ivanovich Chigorin (also ''Tchigorin''; ; – ) was a Russian chess player. He played two World Championship matches against Wilhelm Steinitz, losing both times. The last great player of the Romantic chess style, he also served as a ma ...

, defeated him in a match held in St. Petersburg in 1879. Chigorin won with seven wins, four losses, and two draws. In 1899, the format of the championship was changed to a

round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & ...

known as the All-Russian Masters' Tournament. The winners were: :

RSFSR

After the formation of the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

the

USSR Chess Championship The USSR Chess Championship was played from 1920 to 1991. Organized by the USSR Chess Federation, it was the strongest national chess championship ever held, with eight world chess champions and four world championship finalists among its winne ...

was established as the national championship. However the Russian championship continued to exist as the championship of the

RSFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

. The first two USSR championships in 1920 and 1923 were also recognized as RSFSR championships; the modern numbering of Russian championships begins with these two tournaments. The cities

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

and

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

held their own championships and their players were ineligible to play in the RSFSR championship. However, some did participate as outside competitors: for example, Taimanov finished with the same number of points as Tarasov in the 1960 championship, but only Tarasov was awarded the title as Taimanov was from Leningrad.

Rashid Nezhmetdinov Rashid Gibyatovich Nezhmetdinov (, Tatar: '', Räşit Hibät ulı Näcmetdinov''; ; 15 December 1912 – 3 June 1974) was a Soviet chess player, chess writer, International Master and checkers player. Although he never attained the title of G ...

held the record of five wins of the Russian Chess Championship. :

Russian Federation

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian Championship was re-established as a national championship, and players from Moscow and St. Petersburg were allowed to participate. Prior to 2004, the championship was organized as a Swiss-style tournament except for 1997 and 1999, where a knockout format was used. In 2004, the tournament reverted to a round robin with the strongest players in the country directly seeded into the final (called the Superfinal) held in Moscow while others progress through qualifying tournaments. :

Winners by year (women)

Events by year

1997

Men

Third place match: GM

Alexey Dreev Alexey Sergeyevich Dreev (, also transliterated as Aleksey or Alexei; born 30 January 1969) is a Russian chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster by FIDE in 1989. Career While being a promising young chess talent, ...

(2650) 1½:½ IM Alexander Lastin (2535)

1998

1999

Men

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

Men

Women

2005

Men

Women

2006

Men

=First-place tiebreak

= :

Women

2007

Men

Women

2008

Men

=Rapid playoff

= :

Women

2009

Men

Women

2010

Men

=First-place tiebreak

= :

Women

=First-place tiebreak

= :

2011

Men

Women

2012

Men

=Rapid playoff

= :

Women

2013

Men

Women

2014

Men

Women

2015

Men

Women

2016

Men

Women

2017

Men

Women

2018

Men

Women

2019

Men

Women

=First-place tiebreak

= :

2020

Men

Women

=First-place tiebreak

= :

2021

Open

Women

References

External links

*
RUSBASE (part V) 1919-1937,1991-1994
by Bill Wall.
Details on the 2007 edition
{{Top sport leagues in Russia Chess national championships

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

National championships in Russia