Aeroflot round four – Najer leads, twelve follow!

AEROFLOT round four – Najer leads, twelve follow!

Report from Moscow by Sagar Shah and 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); the B Group (2300 and above), and the C Group (below 2300).

Four rounds into the Aeroflot Open 2016, things are beginning to heat up. The number of mini-upsets have started to dwindle and the top seeds are slowly showing their true mettle. As a spectator, be it online or in person at the venue, one cannot help but notice the utter strength of the tournament. For example the young Indian talent GM Aravindh Chithambaram lost his first two games, but in the third he faced yet another 2600 in the form of David Anton Guijarro. The tournament is simply unrelenting! Talking about things that are unrelenting, one of them definitely would be the Moscow weather (this video was taken from our room in the 15th floor of the Hotel Cosmos).

It would be unpleasant to have to walk to the tournament hall in wet snow. However the saving grace for the all players is that the accommodation as well as the playing venue is located at the same place – Hotel Cosmos, which was built to serve the XXII Summer Olympic Games held in Moscow in 1980. It has 1,777 rooms – 1,718 standard, 53 double room suites and 6 four-room suites. That makes Cosmos the largest hotel in Russia

There are various kinds of shops in the hotel like this one containing trinkets and shawls

There are many restaurants as well as cafés in the hotel premises. This one is right outside
the tournament hall and is used by many players to grab refreshments during the game

The tournament playing hall with the fourth round in progress

Evgeny Najer was the sole leader with 3.0/3. He drew his game against Maxim Matlalov
and still maintained his lead, as many of the top boards split the point.

Only two games had a decisive result amongst the top ten boards. One of them was the victory of the top seed Boris Gelfand over Lu Shanglei. It seems as if Gelfand is slowly shifting gears at the event. After drawing his first two games he won a tactical fight against Anton Demchenko in the third round. And in the fourth, he played a sublime positional game against the 2014 World Junior Champion Lu Shanglei.

Showing his class at the Aeroflot Open: Boris Gelfand

Lu Shanglei is a strong tactical player but was given absolutely no opportunity to show his skills

Dmitry Bocharov came to the board and prepared himself for the game. But no amount of preparation would have helped him to get ready for what he was going to face against the talented Russian youngster…

…Vladimir Fedoseev, who surely played the game of the day

Alexander Rakhmanov has been slowly but steadily climbing the rating charts. He has a current rating of 2650. With a +2 score in this event he is already gaining 6.5 Elo points. Although Rakhmanov is famed for his positional feel, his game against Matthias Bluebaum shows how he is equally adept at tactical play.

Francisco Vallejo Pons drew his fourth round game against Mateusz Bartel and is currently on 3.0/4. We have to point out that the Spaniard played a superb endgame in the second round to beat Boris Savchenko. Here’s the game:

China’s Wen Yang can be pleased with his performance until now at the Aeroflot Open. After blowing Artemiev off the board in the second round he drew his next two rounds against Vallejo Pons and Ian Nepomniachtchi.

The hair is a big give-away, yet we will ask you: can you guess who this is?

Yes of course, none other than Gata Kamsky. The American employed his favourite Dutch Defence in the third round against Falko Bindrich to score his lone victory in the event. Currently he is on 2.5/4.

It doesn’t matter whether Tigran Petrosian wins or loses, one thing will remain
constant: you will be entertained!

UAE’s Salem Saleh is on 2.5/4 and a mouth-watering round five clash between him
and Ian Nepomniachtchi awaits us tomorrow

Playing in open tournaments has not been easy for Wei Yi. After his first round loss
to Potkin, he drew two more games and is currently on 2.0/4.

FIDE ex-World Champion Alexander Khalifman has been solid as a rock and has drawn all his four games. But he wouldn’t be happy with his performance as all his opponents were rated nearly 100 Elo points below him.

The best thing about Baadur Jobava is that it doesn’t matter whether he wins or loses,
he is always in good spirits. He is currently on 2.0/4.

Standings after round four

• Group B standings after four rounds
• Group C standings after four rounds

It’s nice to see that many women players are participating at this year’s Aeroflot Open

Lei Tingjie is currently on 1.5/4, and that includes a win against Bartosz Socko

While her husband Radoslaw Wojtaszek is busy working for Vishy Anand’s upcoming Candidates, Alina Kashlinskaya is scoring one win after another at the B-group of the Aeroflot Open and is currently on 3.0/4

Runner-up of the Women’s Cup at the Moscow Open, Soumya Swaminathan, is on 2.0/4

Qiu Mengjie from China has an unusual taste when it comes to glasses

On a parting note I would like to leave the readers with a position that occurred in the fourth round game of the author of these lines.

Sagar Shah - David Mirzoyan

Bxh6 looks like a very natural sacrifice here. Your task is to consider the possible
defenses for Black after that and to find the best continuation for White in every case.

Pictures by Amruta Mokal

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.