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Report and photos by Reza Mahdipour
The 2016 Khazar International Cup is a chess festival that had a total of six tournaments, including the top Masters competition, the Under-2100, the Women's event, the Youth, and two Under-6 tournaments, one for boys and one for girls.
The festival was hosted in Rasht city, the capital of Gilan province. Above is the venue for
groups "A" (Masters), "B" (under-2100) and "C" (Women)
Present to inaugurate the festival was none other than the legendary Anatoly Karpov
A young fan, Nikoo Abbaspourrad, the Girls U10 Iranian youth champion gushes in front of
one of her idols
Sergei Tiviakov the top seed of Masters groupwas going strong, when
his tournament was derailed by two losses in rounds six and seven.
In round six, untitled 15-year-old Parham Maghsoodloo beat Sergei
Tiviakov in spite of a nasty headache before and during the game!
Iranian players call him "Parhamora!" (Nakamura).
Local hero Amirreza Pourramezanali is the current no. 1 chess player in Gilan
Masoud Mosadeghpour, the reigning world U18 champion and U20 Asian Junior, had a
fantastic event, and finished first on tiebreak
Former Russian champion Sergey Volkov beat...
...Polish defending champion Jacek Stopa.
Untitled 17-year-old Mersad Khodashenas drew against GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami
GM Pouya Idani (former under-18 World Champion) back to the chess field after several months away
FM Aryan Gholami who came in second at the Absolute Iranian Championship in 2016
IM Seyed Khalil Mousavi Who got Silver medal in last year Khazar Cup
Aryan watching Iran's top two players GM Ghaem Maghami and GM Pouya Idani. GM Ehsan
Maghami (2570) is no. 1 because GM Elshan Moradiabadi (2603) changed his rating flag to
FIDE in order to transfer to the US. Elshan has been living in the US in recent years and is
a Ph.D. Candidate at Texas Tech University
Ukrainian GM Vladimir Malaniuk
Ali Abedi was a wrestler before! Now he is a chess player. Smiling next to him is the two-time
Iranian champion GM Morteza Mahjoob!
FM Amirmohammad Soozankar from Gilan province(on of the Gilan players)
Ali Faghirnavaz
IM Mohsen Sharbaf
FM Mohammadreza Asgharzadeh (2264) beat GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami in the Iranian
Chess Super League just a few days earier
Amin Nasri wants go to the US to continue his education
Chief Arbiter of all groups is young and sagacious IA Shohreh Bayat
WFM Bahar Hallaeva (Turkmenistan)
WFM Anahita Zahedifar stormed the competition with a superb 8.0/9
WFM Gozel Atabayeva from Turkmenistan
WFM Ogulgerek Atabayeva (TKM)
WFM Kiana Arab former Iranian youth champion and now US chess player
WFM Motahare Asadi has medals of all colours from World and Asian championships
Yeganeh Karimi
The Women event
Meisam Abed lost his game in round seven
Behrang Kaboodi
Tournament hall, second floor
Mahdi Kowsari (middle) came from London to see the tournament in person!
