Rounds eight and nine
Open A (Main event)
In the main event, there is little to say other than to tip one's hat to Inarkiev's fantastic 8.0/9. It was not without a bit of good fortune, but he earned it, no question. Consider his last round win against Russian champion.
Ernesto Inarkiev - Igo Lysyj
[Event "Moscow Open A 2015"] [Site "Moscow RUS"] [Date "2015.02.08"] [Round "9.1"] [White "Inarkiev, Ernesto"] [Black "Lysyj, Igor"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C11"] [WhiteElo "2675"] [BlackElo "2700"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "8/5k2/p7/P5R1/5K2/8/r5P1/8 b - - 0 45"] [PlyCount "18"] [EventDate "2015.01.31"] {The position was equal, but Black stumbles on the finishing line and plays} 45... Ra4+ $4 {and lost after} (45... Kf6 {was necessary after which he can hold. Ex:} 46. Rf5+ Kg6 47. g4 Ra4+ 48. Kg3 Ra1 {etc}) 46. Kf3 Rc4 47. Rd5 Rc6 48. Rd7+ Ke8 49. Rd5 Kf7 50. Kg4 Kg6 51. Kh4 Kf7 52. g4 Rh6+ 53. Kg5 Rg6+ 54. Kh5 1-0
Yes, he was 'lucky' that Lysyj missed Kf6, but on the other hand, Lysyj was defending a difficult position in which he was not exactly swimming in options.
Ukrainian Anton Korobov took second on tiebreak with 7.0/9
Spaniard Fracisco Vallejo Pons took third with 7.0/9 and earned a few Elo as well
IM Sagar Shah spotted a very entertaining attacking miniature and annotated it.
Vavulin - Predke (analysis by IM Sagar Shah)
[Event "Moscow Open Students 2015"] [Site "Moscow RUS"] [Date "2015.02.06"] [Round "7.1"] [White "Vavulin, Maksim"] [Black "Predke, Alexandr"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D01"] [WhiteElo "2453"] [BlackElo "2537"] [Annotator "Sagar Shah"] [PlyCount "40"] [EventDate "2015.01.31"] {This was a fascinating game played by Predke. He launches an attack on opponent's king right from the opening and that leads to a pretty mate.} 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nc3 d5 3. Bg5 Nbd7 4. Qd3 (4. Nf3 {is much more common.}) (4. f3 {and also played is this move.}) 4... c5 5. O-O-O $6 {This doesn't particularly look like a sound idea as Black's next move shows.} c4 $1 {A clear cut plan of attack on the white king with b5-b4 appears on the horizon!} 6. Qf3 Qa5 7. Nh3 e6 {Opening the way for the bishop.} 8. Bd2 (8. Kb1 b5 9. e4 b4 10. exd5 Bb7 $1 $17 (10... bxc3 11. dxe6 $13)) 8... b5 $1 9. Nxd5 Qxa2 10. Nxf6+ (10. Nc7+ Kd8 11. Nxa8 Qa1#) 10... Nxf6 11. Qc6+ Kd8 {The rook on a8 is taboo because of the mate on a1.} 12. Bc3 (12. Bf4 Qa1+ 13. Kd2 Bb4+ $1 14. c3 Qxb2+ 15. Ke3 Qxc3+ $19) 12... b4 $1 13. Qxa8 bxc3 14. bxc3 Bb4 $1 {A very nice and attractive solution.} (14... Nd5 {was equally strong.}) 15. Kd2 (15. cxb4 c3 {is game over.}) 15... Bxc3+ $1 16. Kxc3 (16. Ke3 Qxc2 $1 $19) 16... Nd5+ 17. Kd2 Qa5+ 18. Kc1 c3 19. Qb8 Qa1+ 20. Qb1 Qa3+ {A poor opening choice by Vavulin and nicely played attack by Predke.} 0-1
The winners of Open A, on the podium: Korobov (second), Inarkiev (first), and Vallejo Pons (third)
Final standings
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Open B (female event)
Chinese WGM Lei Tingjie also had a fantastic tournament, winning with 8.0/9 much like Inarkiev,
and a full point ahead of the rest.
As the top seed and early leader, it was a bitter blow for Goryachkina to
not take first, but two draws at the end were not enough to keep pace
with her rival, and she had to settle for second
For journalist WGM Elmira Mirzoeva it was a rise from the ashes as she
showed here ability, taking third in spite of being only 23rd on the start
Final standings
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Open C (under-2300)
Despite being neither the highest rated in the sub-2300 Open C event, much less the youngest,
54-year-old Sergey Galakhov stormed away with the event with 8.5/9, allowing a draw only at the end
Final standings
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Open D (Senior Event)
By the sixth round, IM Evgeni Dragomarezkij had caught up with the early leader, Evgeny
Sveshnikov, and by round eight he took the lead to finish clear first with 7.5/9
Top seed GM Evgeny Sveshnikov slowed at the end, and took second
Final standings
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Open F (male student round-robin)
The student round-robin invitational was mostly fought be top-seed Daniil
Dubov, and the winner Samvel Ter-Sahakyan who took first with 6.0/9
Final standings
Open G (female student round-robin)
Irene Sukandar from Indonesia ran away with the female student invitational, finishing first
with 7.5/9, a full two points ahead of second place finisher Alina Kashlinskaya
Polina Rodionova did not have the best event, but she did leave with a win of her own
Final standings
The trophy and bouquet awaiting the winners
Photos by Galina Popova and Eteri Kublashvili
