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 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 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) 1919-1937,1991-1994by 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