Aeroflot Open – the guessing game

by ChessBase
2/16/2010 – Five players lead with 5.0/7 points in the A groupe of this prestigious Moscow open tournament – two Vietnamese and three Russians. Eleven GMs from various nations following half a point behind. The female players start at place 48. There are a lot of very nice but uncaptioned pictures on the official tournament site. Thanks for the help in identifying them – there are still a few names missing.

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The 9th Aeroflot Open is taking place from February 9th to 18th, 2010, for the fifth year in succession in the tourist complex Izmailovo Hotel Gamma-Delta, where most of the participants also stay. The prize sum is EUR 180,000, including prizes for the World Blitz Qualification Tournament. Four Open Tournaments (A1, A2, B and C) are made up according to the rating of the participants. The A1 tournament has players with a rating of 2550 or higher.

Time controls: for tournament A1 and A2 it is 40 moves in 100 minutes, then 20 moves in 50 minutes, finally 15 minutes for the remaining moves, with an increment of 30 seconds per move from move one. For tournaments B and C: 90 minutes for the whole game with an increment of 30 seconds per move from move one.

Report from the 9th Aeroflot in Moscow

For a while the two Vietnamese GMs were in the lead, now they are joined by three Russian players, with 19-year-old Ian Nepomniachtchi at the helm. All have 5.0/7 points and 2700+ performances. Half a point behind them are eleven GMs from many different countries: 19-year-old Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Etienne Bacrot from France; Arkadij Naiditsch from Germany; Ivan Cheparinov of Bulgaria; Wesley So from the Philippines; Krishnan Sasikiran from India; Zhou Jianchao from China.

Standings after seven rounds

Rnk Player
Pts
Nat Gen Rtng Perf WWe
1 GM Nepomniachtchi, Ian
5.0
RUS
M
2658 2758 +0.95
2 GM Grachev, Boris
5.0
RUS
M
2653 2756 +0.97
3 GM Le, Quang Liem
5.0
VIE
M
2647 2811 +1.57
4 GM Savchenko, Boris
5.0
RUS
M
2638 2805 +1.60
5 GM Nguyen, Ngoc Truong Son
5.0
VIE
M
2616 2773 +1.50
6 GM Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime
4.5
FRA
M
2730 2713 -0.11
7 GM Bacrot, Etienne
4.5
FRA
M
2713 2735 +0.23
8 GM Naiditsch, Arkadij
4.5
GER
M
2687 2702 +0.17
9 GM Najer, Evgeniy
4.5
RUS
M
2665 2722 +0.56
10 GM Cheparinov, Ivan
4.5
BUL
M
2660 2735 +0.74
11 GM So, Wesley
4.5
PHI
M
2656 2712 +0.55
12 GM Sasikiran, Krishnan
4.5
IND
M
2653 2719 +0.65
13 GM Timofeev, Artyom
4.5
RUS
M
2652 2710 +0.59
14 GM Korobov, Anton
4.5
UKR
M
2648 2700 +0.53
15 GM Bareev, Evgeny
4.5
RUS
M
2643 2708 +0.65
16 GM Zhou, Jianchao
4.5
CHN
M
2632 2753 +1.18
17 GM Motylev, Alexander
4.0
RUS
M
2697 2676 -0.18
18 GM Sargissian, Gabriel
4.0
ARM
M
2680 2641 -0.35
19 GM Moiseenko, Alexander
4.0
UKR
M
2677 2653 -0.21
20 GM Bu, Xiangzhi
4.0
CHN
M
2673 2670 -0.02
21 GM Vescovi, Giovanni
4.0
BRA
M
2660 2664 +0.05
22 GM Dreev, Alexey
4.0
RUS
M
2650 2635 -0.13
23 GM Pashikian, Arman
4.0
ARM
M
2647 2688 +0.40
24 GM Predojevic, Borki
4.0
BIH
M
2642 2617 -0.22
25 GM Zvjaginsev, Vadim
4.0
RUS
M
2642 2653 +0.13
26 GM Mamedov, Rauf
4.0
AZE
M
2640 2673 +0.34
27 GM Amonatov, Farrukh
4.0
TJK
M
2634 2629 -0.04
28 GM Rodshtein, Maxim
4.0
ISR
M
2622 2699 +0.76
29 GM Iturrizaga, Eduardo
4.0
VEN
M
2616 2626 +0.11
30 GM Khalifman, Alexander
4.0
RUS
M
2616 2698 +0.82
31 GM McShane, Luke J
4.0
ENG
M
2616 2657 +0.43
32 GM Sjugirov, Sanan
4.0
RUS
M
2610 2706 +0.94
33 GM Khairullin, Ildar
4.0
RUS
M
2605 2712 +1.05
34 GM Belov, Vladimir
4.0
RUS
M
2595 2677 +0.82
35 GM Bocharov, Dmitry
4.0
RUS
M
2594 2704 +1.07
36 GM Grigoriants, Sergey
4.0
RUS
M
2560 2690 +1.27
37 GM Kamsky, Gata
3.5
USA
M
2693 2602 -0.87
38 GM Volokitin, Andrei
3.5
UKR
M
2692 2614 -0.76
39 GM Van Wely, Loek
3.5
NED
M
2641 2610 -0.30
40 GM Kobalia, Mikhail
3.5
RUS
M
2637 2585 -0.50
41 GM Tregubov, Pavel V.
3.5
RUS
M
2628 2545 -0.80
42 GM Volkov, Sergey
3.5
RUS
M
2623 2580 -0.40
43 GM Andriasian, Zaven
3.5
ARM
M
2613 2633 +0.18
44 GM Potkin, Vladimir
3.5
RUS
M
2611 2615 +0.04
45 GM Shabalov, Alexander
3.5
USA
M
2611 2589 -0.21
46 GM Safarli, Eltaj
3.5
AZE
M
2594 2621 +0.28
47 GM Maletin, Pavel
3.5
RUS
M
2591 2564 -0.25
48 GM Hou, Yifan
3.5
CHN
F
2590 2589 -0.01
49 GM Salgado Lopez, Ivan
3.5
ESP
M
2584 2605 +0.21
50 GM Melkumyan, Hrant
3.5
ARM
M
2583 2622 +0.38
51 GM Kosintseva, Tatiana
3.5
RUS
F
2515 2640 +1.18
52 GM Smirin, Ilia
3.0
ISR
M
2668 2538 -1.28
53 GM Efimenko, Zahar
3.0
UKR
M
2657 2524 -1.30
54 GM Ehlvest, Jaan
3.0
USA
M
2600 2597 -0.05
55 GM Zhou, Weiqi
3.0
CHN
M
2600 2573 -0.28
56 GM Romanov, Evgeny
3.0
RUS
M
2599 2606 +0.07
57 GM Lenic, Luka
3.0
SLO
M
2595 2566 -0.31
58 GM Rakhmanov, Aleksandr
3.0
RUS
M
2591 2593 -0.01
59 GM Ragger, Markus
3.0
AUT
M
2568 2558 -0.11
60 GM Shomoev, Anton
3.0
RUS
M
2559 2568 +0.05
61 GM Novikov, Stanislav
3.0
RUS
M
2557 2543 -0.14
62 IM Kosintseva, Nadezhda
3.0
RUS
F
2533 2585 +0.47
63 GM Ajrapetjan, Yuriy
3.0
UKR
M
2525 2535 +0.08
64 IM Danin, Alexandre
3.0
RUS
M
2519 2557 +0.35
65 GM Khusnutdinov, Rustam
3.0
KAZ
M
2513 2585 +0.65
66 GM Zhigalko, Sergei
2.5
BLR
M
2668 2470 -1.91
67 GM Lopez Martinez, Josep Manu
2.5
ESP
M
2593 2458 -1.31
68 GM Feller, Sebastien
2.5
FRA
M
2579 2511 -0.68
69 GM Morovic Fernandez, Ivan
2.5
CHI
M
2561 2516 -0.46
70 GM Iljushin, Alexei
2.5
RUS
M
2551 2493 -0.57
71 IM Papin, Vasily
2.5
RUS
M
2548 2509 -0.40
72 IM Javakhishvili, Lela
2.5
GEO
F
2493 2503 +0.06
73 GM Ghaem Maghami, Ehsan
2.0
IRI
M
2589 2447 -1.35
74 GM Svetushkin, Dmitry
2.0
MDA
M
2573 2432 -1.33
75 GM Yudin, Sergei
2.0
RUS
M
2573 2449 -1.16
76 IM Krylov, Mikhail
2.0
RUS
M
2511 2454 -0.56
77 GM Sebag, Marie
2.0
FRA
F
2510 2446 -0.61
78 GM Salem, A.R. Saleh
2.0
UAE
M
2484 2462 -0.23
79 GM Vazquez Igarza, Renier
1.0
ESP
M
2563 2268 -2.36
80 GM Laylo, Darwin
0.5
PHI
M
2556 2148 -2.86

We encounter the first female player at place 48: Chinese GM Hou Yifan, who will turn sixteen – tomorrow, Wednesday! Yifan is playing at exactly her expected rating of 2590. Behind her the Kosintseva sisters from Russia, then Lela Jasvakhishvili of Georgia, whose 2.5/7 is from the point of view of performance ten points more than her FIDE rating. Marie Sebag of France is having a bad tournament.

Rnk Player
Pts
Nat Gen Rtng Perf WWe
48 GM Hou, Yifan
3.5
CHN
F
2590 2589 -0.01
51 GM Kosintseva, Tatiana
3.5
RUS
F
2515 2640 +1.18
62 IM Kosintseva, Nadezhda
3.0
RUS
F
2533 2585 +0.47
72 IM Javakhishvili, Lela
2.5
GEO
F
2493 2503 +0.06
77 GM Sebag, Marie
2.0
FRA
F
2510 2446 -0.61

Picture gallery

The official web site has provided many nice pictures for you to browse through – many sharp, well framed and with good colour balance. But all uncaptioned. Basically it is some dude playing chess, then another dude, then a gal, then another dude. But as we said: nice pictures. So here's the plan: we publish a selection and ask you to identify the players. Please send us the names of any players you recognise – and any little snippets of information you may have on them. All this should happen today, Tuesday. We will replace our slightly needy attempts at humor below each picture with the information we receive from you, dear readers.


Player 01: the headscarf should provide a pointer [ Correct answer: WIM Shayesteh Ghader Pour]


02: To sleep, perchance to dream? [WFM Tamara Cheremnova, B Group]


03: You can do a position search in the PGN to identify her [Valerya Rjanova, C Group]


04: Quite obviously we must look towards the east


05: Now isn't that the Berlin Wall specialist? [GM Evgeny Bareev, who prepared the Berlin
for the 2000 World Championship match for Vladimir Kramnik against Garry Kasparov]


06: An enrichment for international women's chess [Iranian WGM Atousa Pourkashiyan]


07: Hint: her first language is Telugu [Indian IM Harika Dronavalli]


08: "He moved the knight to a6 – what should I do now?" [Fidan Aydin qi Aghasiyeva,
whose birthday is on the 19th February, says Michael Yeo of Minstead, England]


09: We could have sworn this was a no-no


10: Well, he has mastered the GM glare [GM Stanislav Novikov]


11: Seriously, we did not reverse the head in Photoshop. [IM Ashwin Jayaram of India,
who identified himself and wrote: "By the way, I can stretch my hands all the way backwards!"]


12: I find my strategic moves by stimulating my parietal lobe [Vladimir Belous]


13: Cameron? In Moscow, playing chess? Nah, very unlikely. [WGM Anastasia Savina]


14: The execution is elegant – but are the moves just as good?


15: Orange for the kingside, blue for the queenside? [IM Mikhail Mozharov]


16: But then again, is anyone ever satisfied with their position? [Gerd Jahrsdoerfer, C Group]


One of our favourite chess people: Boris Vasilievich, a.k.a. Spassky


The perennial arbiter Geurt Gijssen, Holland


The king of chess organisers Alexander Bakh


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