Just before the Moscow Open 2014, Women’s Premier Russian Cup, Daria Charochkina treated herself with a nice present - she won the Moscow Chess Championship Superfinal. Happy Daria answered the questions of our website correspondent immediately after the tournament results were announced. The official closing ceremony will take place on Feb 9.
- Daria, please accept our congratulations! Did you expect the win?
- Thank you. Absolutely not! I thought that if I had a draw in the last round I wouldn’t have any chance to win. Ira (Irina Vasilevich) and I had quite a tough game. I was waiting for the mistake from my opponent’s side but finally it was me who made a mistake. It’s a pity that I missed this perpetual check, maybe it was the only thing that one could miss in our position. When the game was finished I thought to myself - I'd lost first place. If Valya (Valentina Gunina) won we would have an equal number of points, and I didn’t hope to win from the coefficient.
- Did you have some special training for this tournament?
- I didn’t do anything special. Above all I tried to prepare myself to the Moscow Open Premier Russian Cup that will start on Feb 1. I’m going to take part in this competition.
- Will you be able to switch from the rapid chess to the classic variant?
- I hope that I can. The classic chess is the most important.
- You a lot of attention to blitz for a certain period. Maybe this helped you in the Superfinal?
- Yes, in the years of 2007-2008 I played many blitz games. I was a constant visitor of the Oktyabrskiy club. I won the “Vecherka” competition not so long ago (Moscow Blitz Championship). Now I play blitz and rapid chess very seldom. If I still have some skill in blitz, rapid chess has always been something weird for me, neither fish nor fowl (laughing). To be honest I’m even surprised with my result. It looks like it’s the first successful rapid chess tournament for me.
- How do you the like the idea of holding the Superfinal?
- First it was supposed to be a classic chess tournament and it was to be held long before the RSSU Cup. And when it was renamed to the rapid chess I thought: “It would be much better if it were classic chess.” However, the tournament became an ideal start of the festival.
- Have you ever thought about becoming a member of the Moscow National Team?
- Yes, of course. Unfortunately I’m not there yet.
- Thank you for a nice conversation. We wish you a continued successful performance at the Moscow Open, Premier Russian Cup.
- Thank you.
The questions were asked by Anna Kalyaeva