Aeroflot Open Rd6: Tough fights and great games

Aeroflot Open 2016

Photos by Amruta Mokal

The 13th edition of the Aeroflot Open 2016 is being held in Moscow, Russia from the 29th of February to 10th of March 2016. The official hotel of the event is Cosmos and the playing venue is also located at the same place. There are three tournaments that are simultaneously taking place:

• The A Group (2550 and above) which has 83 players. Out of them 67 are grandmasters and the average rating of the tournament is 2585. This is higher than the Qatar Masters which had a rating average of 2529 (although in Doha the rating cut-off was 2300). The top seed of the tournament is Boris Gelfand with an Elo of 2735. Other star attractions are Bu Xiangzhi, Wei Yi and Ian Nepomniachtchi. They will fight for the first place of €18,000. Round begins at 3 p.m. every day and the time control is 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 50 minutes for the next 20 moves and 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from the first.

• The B Group (2300 and above) has attracted the most entries – 94. With the participation of 16 grandmasters and 40 International Masters this event has a pretty decent rating average of 2390. The first prize is €8,000. Round begins at 3 p.m. and the time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves and 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from the first.

• 63 players participate in the C Group (below 2300). There are players right from the rating of 2296 down to unrated players. €3,000 is the first prize. Rounds begin every day at 3 p.m. and the time control is 90 minutes for the whole game with an increment of 30 seconds per move from the first. The participants must keep the record of moves till the end of the game.

Round six

One of Aravindh's biggest advantages is that doesn't really care about his previous results.
He just focuses on his present game. In round six he defeated fellow prodigy Alireza Firouzja.

The best part about Baadur Jobava is that whether he wins or loses, he is always in good spirits

Korobov - Bachmann

Korobov is a renowned tactician, but the Paraguayan grandmaster Axel
Bachmann was in the zone. Can you see his ultra-creative continuation?
Black to play.

The Polish grandmaster Bartel Mateusz has been all business and his focus and concentration
have been rewarded. After six rounds he is one of only four players with 4.5/6.

In the following game, you will be treated not only to deep strategic ideas, but extremely creative tactics to follow up on them. A true gem of a game with inspired notes by Iranian grandmaster GM Elshan Moradiabadi.

Korobov - Bachmann (annotated by GM Elshan Moradiabadi)

Ian Nepomniachtchi is a world-class blitz and rapid player

Boris Savchenko's bored look may explain why he lost to Ernesto Inarkiev in round six

Kamsky - Salem

It is time to turn off engines, sit back, and evaluate the position. White is
a pawn down, and Black has a great 'pack' of pawns in the center. Sound
about right?

No! As GM Moradiabadi explains in his notes: "Black king's does not have a real safe place to go to, and in the long-run Black has a lot of difficulty to mobilize his pieces. In addition, Black has a number of weaknesses on the queenside, notably the a-pawn, which would fall once White manages to mobilize his pieces on the queenside."

Kamsky - Salem (annotated by GM Elshan Moradiabadi)

Andrey Esipenko is just 13 years old, but already has a rating of 2445. He is playing in
the 'A' category and has beat strong GMs like Nikita Maiorov and Denis Khismatullin

GM Rinat Jumabayev from Kazakhstan has 3.5/6 and is performing about par

About the annotator Elshan Moradiabadi, is a grandmaster, rated 2603 FIDE, and was born and raised in Tehran, Iran. He is a PhD student/candidate in Management Information System (MIS) at Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech university. Elshan co-authored "Chess and the Art of War: Ancient Wisdom to Make You a Better Player" with Al Lawrence. He has also published written articles for ChessBase, and edited opening materials for fellow authors. Elshan Moradiabadi is a veteran instructor and teaches chess to every level, with students ranging from beginners to IM. He can be contacted for projects or teaching at his email.

Top results of round six

Click for complete results

Standings after round six

Click for complete standings

Links Official tournament site Download all games in PGN The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.