Aeroflot Open: Sutovsky catches Kharlov at the top

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).

Once again the official web site, while making an effort and definitely improving on last year's performance, is still not supplying all the games. We have also been unable to find a comprehensive progress table, so we will have to make do with the results of round five, from which you can calculate the score of your favourite players. You can also see it from the pairings of the next round at the official web site. Watch out for possible errors in the notation of the games provided below.

Results of round five

Behind each player is his score from the first four rounds. As you can see Kharlov is now 4.5 points after his draw against Bologan, and has been caught by Sutovsky, who won his fifth round game. Bologan and Sergey Volkov have four points each, after that comes a bunch of players with 3.5 points each. Tomorrow will see the heavyweight (the pun is intended) battle between Emil Sutovsky and Andrei Kharlov.

• All the available games in zipped PGN

Moscow Impressions

By Michael Knyazkov

The winter forest at the outskirts of Moscow

Vilisa Latsisa street, at the edge of of the city

A market near Moscow's Planernaya metro station

You can take the full-sized government busses or a mini-bus run by a private company, which cost more but are faster and more frequent

We take the Moscow metro (underground, subway), best form of transportation

The train arrives at the Kitai-Gorod station, very close to the venue

The escalator up to the street level

Shops and kiosks in the metro station

Emerging from the Kitai-Gorod metro station, on a overcast winter day

Spectators collecting at the entrance of the tournament hall

The chess shop with books, sets and memorabilia

Ready for the visitors: the hotel bar

And the games can begin (here round four)

Players and arbiters collect for the next round

Play the Ruy Lopez, drink mineral water instead of Pepsi, Alexandra Kosteniuk

The key game of round four: Andrei Kharlov vs Vassily Ivanchuk. Result: 1-0.

Second board struggle: Pavel Eljanov vs Vladimir Akopian. Draw

Analysing after the game. In the background right: Viorel Bologan, who beat Alberto David of Luxemburg with the black pieces

Viorel Bologan with GM Max Dlugy of the USA

Leaders clash in round five: Viorel Bologan vs Andrei Kharlov. Result: draw.

The other games – Shakhriyar Mamedyarov vs Ashot Anastasian, Vadim Zvjaginsev vs Sergey Karjakin (both games were drawn).

Links

• Official Aeroflot web site
• Live coverage on the Aeroflot site
• Live coverage on Playchess.com
• Our intro report

  ChessBase reports from previous years

• Aeroflot tournament – pictures from Russia (01.03.2004)
• Aeroflot Chess Festival wrap-up (19.03.2004)
• Aeroflot Festival – without the games (18.02.2004)
• Aeroflot Open Moskau 2003 (08.02.2003)
• Moscow picture gallery (14.02.2003)
• Fasten your seat belts, the Aeroflot open has begun (12.02.2003)
• Isn't life wonderful, Sanya? (26.02.2003)