The International Chess Open Festival "Aeroflot Open 2005" in Moscow runs
from Feb. 15-23. It is being held in the Hotel Rossija, directly next to the
Red Square. Games start at 3 p.m. Moscow time. There are four groups: Tournament
A1 for players with a FIDE rating higher than 2549; Tournament
A2 for players between 2399-2550; Tournament B 2199-2400;
Tournament C below 2200. The time
controls are 40/2, 20/1 + 15 minutes/rest (tournament B and C: 90'+30"
for the whole game).
My Aeroflot
Report by Misha Savinov
Pictures by Misha Savinov and Michael Knyazkov
This was my 3rd Aeroflot open. In 2003, on my way back from the US to Russia
I suddenly realized that it might be advantageous to obtain the Aeroflot tournament
package and take part in the open rather than to buy a regular transatlantic
ticket. This very fact gives us an idea why the Aeroflot Open immediately became
so popular among the ex-Soviets scattered around the world. In my case it just
did not work out with dates, so I had to give up the plan of playing in the
Open B, but ended up observing the main tournament! After daily reports in
both 2003 and 2004 for the ChessBase and the ChessCafe, I finally obtained
a luxury of having some spare time after the rounds... Hope you enjoy a large
final report.
The venue
A monster of Soviet architecture, hotel "Rossija" once again welcomed
more than 500 players, not to mention their trainers and family members. It
was already overbooked for more than a week prior to the tournament. The games
of three main events, A1 (2550 and above), A2 (2400-2549) and B (2200-2399),
took place at the same two-level restaurant "Golden Hall". Tail enders
of A2 and B played at the second floor. There was also a small area for post-mortem
analysis, located under the stairs. Only 8 chess sets, and security guards
done their best to prevent players reaching them.
The analysis area, only for grown-up participants?
After Berkes-Karjakin (draw) both grandmasters approached the skittles area,
but a guard was vigilant. "Are you going there to play?" he asked.
"Yes", replied Karjakin. "No, this is for analysis. Go away".
Sergey quickly changed the story. "Yes, we want to analyze". The
guard looked at the young boy with understandable disbelief. "Show me
your badge". Sergey did not have one, but other participants and media
supported Karjakin’s right to analyze, and the guard finally allowed
him to approach the table. What a disorganized people these chessplayers, he
probably thought.
Young Sergey Karjakin (middle) with Ukrainian friends
A similar problem occurred at the press center. Why was it so attractive for
non-journalists? Simply, because of three computers connected to the Internet.
Initially guards did not pay attention to people coming in and out, but at
some point a tournament director noticed that lots of players were using the
computers to play and chat on the Internet. It lead to a heated discussion
with security, and in the next days only the luckiest of participants managed
to get into the press center on their own.
Ivanchuk passing through security to the press center
There were, however, some people who passed ‘incoming traffic control’
smoothly. Maybe TD also showed pictures of some elite GMs to the guards?
Surfing the Internet on one of the press computers
Participants
Etienne Bacrot was a rating leader of Aeroflot-2005. Being a number One is
a difficult position to succeed in Moscow, the fact well-proven in previous
years. Indeed, Bacrot never threatened to win the event, however, he showed
a decent +3 score and made a crucial impact on final ranking in the last round
– but more on it later.
The Carlsen generation: Russian talent Ian Nepomniashchi
One of the youngest participants of the Open
Curiously, junior players produced rather modest results this year. Magnus
Carlsen did not come (he is not made of steel, after all), another representative
of his generation, Russian Ian Nepomniashchi, lost a few games in the beginning,
and recovered back to 50% only in the end (which nevertheless gave him a GM
norm). Agents of a new chess superpower, Ukrainians Karjakin, Areshchenko and
Efimenko became visibly tired during the event.
Only Teimour Radjabov managed to score 6/9 to tie for 6th-12th in the end.
Alexander Khalifman
However, one could not fail noticing a strong come-back from Alexander Khalifman.
When former FIDE champion won his first game, he sarcastically commented: "This
might be my first win out of last hundred games." In the end Alexander
finished at +3, and, more significantly, he played fearlessly as in his best
years. True, he was balancing on the edge against Bacrot and Motylev, but drew
both games and came up with another half-joking statement: "I think I
could give handicap to these youngsters... a pawn to Bacrot, an exchange to
Motylev – and they still can’t win."
Ruslan Ponomariov
A last-minute-joined another FIDE champion Ruslan Ponomariov had difficulties
winning a single game, and even lost to Wang Yue in the Round Six. There were
rumors that Ruslan would withdraw from the event, but it appeared to come from
what we call "evil tongues". Ponomariov finished with two straight
wins, and did not seem disappointed with the tournament despite modest +1 finish.
"You think it is easy to beat Russian GMs?", he asked people who
inquired about the reasons of his underperformance.
Great chess trainers Alexander Nikitin and Mark Dvoretsky
Curiously, one major Russian newspaper wrote about two former world champions
– Khalifman and Ponomariov – participating in the Aeroflot Open:
"we did not expect them finishing among the leaders because their best
years are passed." In my opinion, it sounds quite weird to say something
like this with regard to 21-year-old Ponomariov, but it seems it was Khalifman
who got the message...
Kharlov: smooth start
After three rounds there were two players with maximum score, Ivanchuk and
Kharlov. In their personal encounter Ivanchuk surprised his opponent with very
aggressive opening play as Black, and Kazan grandmaster spent most part of
the game on a defensive. However, Vassily seemed to overestimate his chances,
and when the reality hit him and game went to a four-rook endgame with extra
pawn for White, Ukrainian did not put much of a resistance.
Until 7th round Kharlov rested on draws, but then came out of an ambush to
refute excessively aggressive opening by Malakhov, and again became a sole
leader half a point ahead of Volkov and Sutovsky.
Sutovsky: brilliant middlegame
Emil Sutovsky has one of the finest senses of dynamics in chess. His two wins
against Kotsur and Filippov are very likely the most brilliant games of this
year’s Aeroflot open. Fellow grandmasters were especially impressed with
the former, in which Emil conducted a positional sacrifice of a piece for just
one pawn. Extended analysis confirmed the correctness of his decision, which
looked almost nonsense for his opponent during the game.
Emil Sutovsky entertaining Vassily Ivanchuk
Sutovsky is very effective in longer Swiss events, because while he wins a
lot, an uncompromising and creative approach to the game (as well as his reluctance
to make short draws) makes one or two defeats per tournament almost inevitable.
This time he broke in a game against Ivanchuk. Another daring sacrifice proved
ineffective, Ivanchuk found a several excellent defensive moves and parried
the attack. The Ukrainian modestly admitted afterwards that at a critical moment
of the game he simply guessed the correct response, but anyhow it worked out
well for him.
The situation before concluding round was quite favorable for Kharlov, experienced,
solid and tough-to-beat player. Volkov and Ivanchuk trailed by a half point
and had worse tie-breaks than Andrey. Only two players in a large group with
5.5 had better color balance – Sutovsky and Bacrot (and both had to have
black in the round nine). Some journalists expressed 99% confidence in Kharlov’s
success.
Akopian vs Kharlov in round nine, with Sutovsky in the background
However, a final round was a real drama. First of all, the very focused Vladimir
Akopian devastated Kharlov after the latter came up with unusually weak opening
idea. It is difficult to say, whether Andrey started to celebrate too early
or simply did not prepare well for a crucial challenge, but he lost a pawn
and soon a game without much fight.
In the game Volkov – Sutovsky White sacrificed a piece quite early in
the opening, but his attack did not work out. Sutovsky parted with three pawns,
but forced exchanging Queens and then took the initiative and proceeded to
win. The Israeli left the tournament area thinking that he finishes on 2nd
place, because Ivanchuk, as everyone thought, was on a way to victory against
Bacrot, which would make him an undisputed winner of the event.
Vassily Ivanchuk
"Two rating favorites play each other in the last round, one wins and
get the first place – what a boring tournament!" was the ironic
lament of one of the press center devotees. But this game was full of ups and
downs. First Bacrot blundered rather simple tactics and had to give up a pawn.
Ivanchuk returned the pawn, but transposed into a winning endgame. And then
the Frenchman started to play to his full strength, stubbornly refusing to
resign and patiently finding defensive resources. Probably position remained
winning for Vassily, but he became nervous and spoiled everything with rushy
pawn break shortly prior to the time control. Bacrot spent almost half an hour
after the control and found the way to draw a rook ending.
Tie-break winner Emil Sutovsky of Israel
Suddenly the situation changed completely. Five players tied for first, and
only one of them, Emil Sutovsky had a superior color balance, i.e. five Blacks
and four Whites. So he was proclaimed a winner on a tiebreak. Andrey Kharlov,
who led the event since the Round One, finished second.
Ex world champion Vassily Smyslov speaks at the closing ceremony
Fairness of color balance?
Last year many voices rose against this sort of tie-breaking system. For example,
Sergey Shipov said that he considers Filippov being a true winner of the 2004-event,
as one who had better Bucholz. This year, however, all the participants I
asked agreed that Emil Sutovsky deserved his Dortmund ticket. I do not want
to go into detail discussing randomness of pairings etc, but the fact that
only three out of 12 top finishers had a "black" color balance pretty
much speaks for itself.
Emil Sutovsky speaking at the prize-giving ceremony
One of the brightest players on a chess scene, Sutovsky is also very intelligent
and well-educated person. He speaks more than half a dozen languages and has
a talent for opera singing. I very much like the idea of him playing in Dortmund,
and hope that someday he might be invited to even more prestigious tournaments...
During the closing ceremony it was announced that the next Aeroflot open will
take place in the same hotel Rossija, which is already for a couple of years
rumored to be demolished and rebuilt. Another piece of good news is that Air
France is prepared to expand its sponsorship to the tournament. Aeroflot representative
said that his company welcomes the interest of their good partners from Air
France, but the level of Aeroflot airlines sponsorship and the name of the
festival would definitely remain unchanged. It is a great pleasure to see such
solid companies sponsoring chess. At the same time, it seems they also benefit
from media coverage of the event as well. And there are so many airlines worldwide...
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