Number 11

The grand opening of the 74th “all-gender” Russian Chess Championship Superfinal and 71st Russian Women’s Chess Championship Superfinal took place at the Bashkir State Art Museum named in honour of Mikhail Vasilyevich Nesterov in Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia on Friday, October 8, 2021. Basically it was just like all the other times except that this time the ceremony itself and the drawing of lots have been put to the test by one notion of gender equality that had never occurred in the long and glorious history of Russian (and Soviet) chess: Aleksandra Yuryevna Goryachkina drew number 11 in the drawing of lots, she being the first woman ever to earn the right to compete in the “unisex” Russian Championship. Photo: Eteri Kublashvili/Press service of the Ministry of Youth and Sports of the Republic of Bashkortostan.