Chess With Sam Collins

66th Russian Women’s Championship, 2016

The Russian National Championship recently took place in Novosibirsk. The women’s event was convincingly won by top seed GM Alexandra Kosteniuk with an impressive score of 8.5/11. Her round two encounter with second seed GM Valentina Gunina was important for the final standings.

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5

A familiar opening for both players. Kosteniuk prefers 1.e4 and confidently plays main lines, looking for complicated ...