International Chess Festival Moscow Open 2007 The Third International Chess Festival Moscow Open 2007 took place in Moscow, Russia, from January 27th to February 4th, 2007. The number of participants was 820, a record for this event and for Russian tournaments in general. The participants were from 18 countries and include 60 grandmasters.

The championship consisted of three groups: the main tournament “A”, group “B”, and children tournament “C” in which players under the age of 15 took part. The A Group was won by GMs Evgeniy Najer and Vasily Yemelin, with 7.5/9 points each.

GMs Evgeniy Najer and Vasily Yemelin, winners of the Moscow Open

Evgeniy Najer won on tiebreak and receives the 300,000 Ruble (€8700 or $11,300) first prize. Vasiliy Emelin came second, and there were a lot of challengers looking for third. In the end there was a tie for third place between Dmitry Svetushkin and Vladimir Malakhov.

Evgeniy Najer (right) at the start of his 7th round game against Vladimir Malakhov

Moscow Open Tournament Group B – Final Ranking after nine Rounds

• All games in zipped PGN

Illya Nyzhnyk wins Group B

Now comes the interesting part: Group B (and please note: not the children's section) was won by Illya Nyzhnyk, who scored 8.5/9 points with a 2633 performance. The point is that this Ukrainian player, nominally rated 2217, is just ten years old! We are going to have to watch the boy carefully, and even learn to pronounce his name.

Illya Nyzhnyk, UKR, playing in the Boy's Under 10 at the European Youth Chess Championships in Herceg Novi, Serbia and Montenegro in September 2005. Newer pictures are not currently available, but we have a link to a video showing the 10-year-old in action.

Moscow Open Tournament Group B – Final Ranking after nine Rounds

• Official Moscow Open 2007 web site (Russian and English)
• Moscow Chess Federation web site (Russian)

Photo reports

There is a special section with a lot of photos on the official web site. Normally we complain about missing captions, which is a terrible waste of good photo reports. This time our Russian colleagues have done an exceptional job of describing the contents of the pictures. The captions are imaginative, informative and humorous. And the English is adventurous – sometimes hilarious. But don't let that put you off. An extended visit to the round-by-round photo is definitely worth your while.

• Round one photo report (The beginning...)
• Round two photo report (Yesterday in a blue sitting-room)
• Round three photo report ("Hello" from Kramnik)
• Round four photo report (Frost and the sun...)
• Round five photo report (Nerve struggle)
• Round six photo report (The fight is right)
• Round seven photo report (The situation grew doubly hot each moment)
• Round eight photo report (Catching up)
• Round nine photo report (Moscow Open 2007: time to part!)