VI Georgy Agzamov Memorial – Tashkent Open 2012

VI Georgy Agzamov Memorial – Tashkent Open 2012

By Jamshid Begmatov

The sixth edition of Agzamov Memorial, aka Tashkent Open, took place on March 5–15 at hotel Shodlik Palace which also provided accommodation to most international players. The nine-round Swiss with the prize fund of USD 20 thousand saw the participation of 113 players from 14 countries, including 16 GMs of whom eight were rated over 2600, and one was over 2700.

Before discussing this year's event, here is a quick look back at some notable names and facts from the short history of this now traditional tournament. Sadly, two of the previous winners of Agzamov Memorial are no longer with us: GM Leonid Yurtaev of Kyrgyzstan, and GM Vitaly Tseshkovsky of Russia, who both passed away last year.

The first Agzamov Memorial was held in 2007, where GM Leonid Yurtaev, GM Marat Dzhumaev and IM Sergey Kayumov came equal first, with Yurtaev winning on Buchholz tiebreak.

The 2008 Agzamov Memorial saw 73 players from 9 countries.  GM Farrukh Amonatov, IM (now GM) Anton Filippov, and GM Vitaly Tseshkovsky tied for first, Amonatov taking first prize with best tiebreaks.

The 2009 Agzamov Memorial was won by the legendary Russian GM Vitaly Tseshkovsky, who was 64 at the time.

In the 2010 edition, four GMs shared first with 7.0/9: Maxim Turov of Russia (winner on Buchholz), Sergey Zhigalko of Belorussia, Rinat Jumabayev of Kazakhstan and Vitaly Golod of Israel.

And finally, the 2011 tournament saw GMs Tigran Petrosian of Armenia, Anton Filippov and Marat Dzhumayev (both of Uzbekistan) on the top, Petrosian winning on Buchholz. (Photo by chess-news.ru)

This brings us nicely to the 2012 Agzamov Memorial. As in previous years, I was invited to manage the press coverage of the tournament, which involved writing press releases and reports for newspapers, doing radio and TV interviews and, of course, taking plenty of pictures, some of which I’m sharing with you here. The tournament was held in two playing halls separated by a five-minute walk, but given that you are only allowed to take pictures during the first fifteen minutes of each round, I had to stay at the main hall where the top twenty boards played.

The four-star Shodlik Palace hotel where the event was held and players stayed

For reasons beyond my control, this report is very late. Several players went straight to the European Championship in Plovdiv after the Agzamov Memorial, where the heated discussions took place on the controversial decisions. While not an expert in chess policy, I would like to draw some parallels between the two tournaments from the point of view of “zero tolerance” and Sophia rules. The former was not applied in Tashkent. I personally believe that forfeiting a player for being late by a few seconds, or even minutes in open tournaments with long time controls is utter nonsense. Here, players were allowed a maximum of 15 minute tardiness. Sophia rules, however, were applied: players were not allowed to conclude draws in under 30 moves. On the surface, this is supposed to lead to more fighting chess and fewer draws. But, if two chess professionals wish to draw their game without fight, they will whatever the move limit, without arbiters (who normally have incomparably lower chess skill and understanding than pros) even noticing this. Other remedies need to be found… (Ed: the three-point victory, one-point draw works pretty well)

No zero-tolerance, no draw agreements before move 30, time controls, etc, – that’s
what yours truly (on the right) is explaining to the English speaking audience at the
opening ceremony.

Three grandmasters came first with 7.0/9: Maxim Turov of Russia (first on tiebreak)...

The first women’s prize went to WIM Nafisa Muminova, 2327 FIDE, and she deserves a special paragraph here: I have witnessed several tournaments where Nafisa missed her final WGM norm by just half-point. The photo above shows the start of her last round game against the very experienced master, Ibragim Karimov, which Nafisa absolutely had to win with black in order to complete the norm. She duly did, and became the first ever Woman Grandmaster of Uzbekistan. Congrats, Nafisa!

Kazakhstani WIM Guliskan Nakhbayeva completed her second WGM norm and won
the second women’s prize.

Israeli GM Vitaly Golod (2561)

Top Indonesian chess player GM Susanto Megaranto

Nafisa with her youngest sister Gulruhbegim. Her name is pronounced: Gool-rooh-begh-im.
To keep it simple, we just call her Begim. At age twelve, Begim was the U16 Uzbekistan
champion and bronze at the U12 World Championship held last December in Brazil.

Yours truly and GM Viorel Iordachescu of Moldova, at the hotel bar. Viorel runs a
chess academy in Chişinău, capital of Moldova.

IM Vladimir Egin, winner of the top Senior prize

GM Rustam Khusnutdinov of Kazakhstan

Arbiters at work

Doctors just outside the playing hall, just in case

Everybody has to do their job. Here is the cameraman of the Sport TV channel at work

To conclude the chess part of this report, I would like to present two games, one of which I have selected for its beauty (it would have received my vote had there been a best game prize), and another for its importance in the distribution of top places.

A breathtaking attack by GM Gadir Guseinov against IM Andrey Kvon:

and the last round must-win by GM Anton Filippov which allowed him to catch up with two leaders who drew between themselves:

A round-by-round selection of top games can be viewed and downloaded from this page.

A cultural digression

Against all odds and global warming theories, this March was very cold in Tashkent, with almost daily snow and showers, and sub-zero temperatures. The weather was so bad that players hardly ever left the hotel to sightsee or other. Still, since it’s a tradition – and a good one – to include some non-chess, cultural material in ChessBase reports, I will take you to a nearby art gallery where “Bazar-Art”, an exhibition of Uzbek applied and decorative arts, was underway.

A designer of national dresses, and two models

A thousand-euro rug made of pure camel wool

Don’t tell this to animal welfare advocates, but this hat called 'Karakul' is made from
the skin of newly born lambs. This is a large industry in the southern parts of Uzbekistan.

Ceramic souvenirs

Chess sets with Central Asia style pieces

Every Uzbek family makes tea in these types of teapots and drinks from cups called 'piala'

Can you guess what this is? It’s Aladdin’s lamp, a device very well known to those
familiar with 'The Book of One Thousand and One Nights', more widely known in
English-speaking world as 'The Arabian Nights'.

The frame story takes place in ancient Persia, with a misogynic king Shahriyar (who also played chess, yes!) wanting to have his wife Shaherezadah’s head cut off, but every night she keeps him fascinated by telling him a story, and stopping it at the most exciting moment, promising to continue it only the following night, thus making the king want to find out what happened next. She keeps doing this for 1001 nights, and eventually the king keeps her alive. Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp is one of the most fascinating stories in the series. In the story, anyone who rubs the lamp calls out a genie who fulfills his any wish. So did I, but no genie would come out…

About the author Jamshid Begmatov, whose hobbies include chess and photography, has been writing reports and articles for ChessBase since 2003. With his excellent English, Russian and Turkish, some knowledge of French and Persian, degree in Economics, incredibly good writing skills, many years of experience in project management, PR and advertising, Jamshid is looking for international employment opportunities. If you are an interested potential employer, feel free to contact him at this email. Official tournament site All available games in PGN You can also use ChessBase 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs to replay the games in PGN. You can also download our free Playchess client, which will in addition give you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com.