Candidates closing ceremony revisited
4/2/2016 – The closing ceremony of the Candidates 2016 was held at the Central Telegraph building on March 29, with prominent Russian political leaders like Igor Levitin, Alexander Zhukov, Pavel Kolopkov in attendance. Sergey Karjakin was awarded the medal, trophy, €95,000, Beluga Vodka and toy BMW car! In this report we bring you more exclusive pictures from the venue that give you the feel of the festivities in Moscow.
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The 2016 FIDE World Chess Candidates Tournament is a 14-round event, which determines the next Challenger to Magnus Carlsen's title, is taking place in Moscow from March 10–30. Eight players, including six of the World's top-ten rated grandmasters. The time control is 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, 50 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, plus an additional 30 seconds per move starting from move one. The guaranteed prize fund is US $420,000.
Pictorial report from the Closing Ceremony by Amruta Mokal
In a dramatic finale Sergey Karjakin took the first place
at the Candidates 2016 by beating Fabiano Caruana in 42 moves
Sergey Karjakin who finished first went home richer by €95,000. Fabiano Caruana and Vishy Anand took home €81,500. Anish Giri, Hikaru Nakamura, Levon Aronian and Peter Svidler won € 36,250 and Veselin Topalov got €17,000. (Note: 10% of Hikaru Nakamura's fees will be deducted for his absence in the press conference after his game against Levon Aronian.)
The closing ceremony of the Candidates 2016 was held in the Central Telegraph Building on the 29th of March at 5.30 p.m. Some of the dignitaries present at the event were the aide to the President of Russia Igor Levitin, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, head of Russia's Olympic committee and first deputy head of the state of Duma, Alexander Zhukov, Russian deputy sports minister Pavel Kolopkov and President of Russian Chess Federation Andrey Filatov. Here are some of the pictures from the event (Click on the picture below to view in higher resolution, and then use the arrow keys to browse through all the photos in this report):
The winner Sergey Karjakin came early and did interviews with many Russian channels.
In the picture is seen a very special person watching Sergey.
Sergey was obviously distracted and smiles back at the lady! Can you guess who she is?
She was none other than Galiya Kamalova, wife of Sergey Karjakin
The winner with his proud possession
A closer look at the trophy and the medal which bear the AGON logo
From left to right: Vishy Anand, Peter Svidler, Levon Aronian, Anish Giri, Hikaru Nakamura, Veselin Topalov, Fabiano Caruana, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, Sergey Karjakin, Igor Levitin, Andrey Filatov, Alexander Zhukov and Pavel Kolopkov.
It feels so good to be with each other after such a grueling event. Sergey and Galiya were not the only romantic couple in the hall...
....Meet Romantic couple #2, Anish Giri and Sopiko Guramishvili. They keep the magic alive in spite of being together with each other for the entire event!
Is Deputy Chief Arbiter Hal Bond trying to take a selfie with Vishy?! Hal has been the deputy chief chief arbiter for many important events like 2014 Candidates, World Championships 2008 and many more. He was also the chief arbiter in the 2012 Women's World Championship in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia.
"Take care in New York!" Advice from the man who has twice faced Magnus Carlsen in a World Championship Match is always welcome!
Peter Svidler in his element!
Top left: Topalov has a look at his trophy. Top right: Nakamura also has a look whether Veselin has got a bigger trophy than him. Bottom left: Topalov to Nakamura,"Even the winner gets the same size of trophy as us!" Bottom right: Both are happy at this discovery!
With the US Championships beginning from the 13th of April, Kris Littlejohn and Hikaru Nakamura do not have a moment to rest. This year the US Championship will be the strongest in the history with the participation of Caruana, Nakamura and So.
Veselin Topalov with Anish Giri's coach Vladimir Tukmakov
Peter Svidler chats with one of Karjakin's seconds, Alexander Motylev
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Darya Tkachenko is a Ukrainian draughts player, FMJD (International Draughts association) Grand Master, multiple times World champion in international draughts (2005, 2006, 2008, 2011) and two-times European champion in international draughts (2004, 2006). She was here to support Karjakin at the event.
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Levon Aronian's fiance Arianne Caoili was in Moscow right from the start of the event. Did you know, Arianne speaks several languages fluently, and has studied for a Ph.D. at a German university on "Russian foreign policy, especially its economic and business relations with Armenia on a state and individual level"?
The pressure, stress, tension of the Candidates doesn't seem to have affected Sopiko, who looked as fresh as a daisy!
Meet Boris Dolmatovsky (left). He is a legend in chess photography. Ever since photography became his hobby, he started to travel to various chess events taking pictures like Kasparov-Karpov match in Sevilla, Kasparov-Short match in London, Kasparov-Anand in New York, Karpov-Anand match in Lausanne, 1988 Olympiads in Thessaloniki, Tilburg (Holland), Paris and more. It was an honour and my good fortune that I got to meet such an accomplished photographer.
This man was single handedly responsible for taking the broadcasting of this tournament to a new level. He was proficient in English and with his minimum knowledge of chess posed fresh and interesting questions to the players and commentators throughout the tournament. You can watch all his videos on the World Chess Youtube Channel.
The chief organizer of the event, CEO of Agon Ilya Merenzon, can be happy that the tournament has successfully concluded
"I cannot conceal the fact that the representative of Russia winning the event has made me very happy", Aide to the President of Russia Igor Levitin was the chief guest at the closing ceremony
The four speakers at the closing ceremony, clockwise from top left: Igor Levitin, Alexander Zhukov, Pavel Kolopkov and Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
Sergey Karjakin received these styles Liquour bottles from Beluga
Beluga Noble Russian Vodka were the VIP Program partner at the event and provided free drinks to everyone at the closing ceremony!
With a glass of Vodka and a game of chess, you can forget everything else!
According to me, keeping these chess sets for the guests, not only for the closing ceremony but also during the entire duration of Candidates, was an excellent move by the organizers
"It's my dream," said Sergey Karjakin when he was presented with the BMW i8 model. Did he really win this beast which goes from 0-60 kmph in 4.4 seconds, and has a top speed of 250 kmph? More about it will follow in a separate article shortly!
Life as a winner is busy! On 30th of March Sergey was invited to the Evening Urgant show on Channel One. It is a Russian late-night talk show hosted by Ivan Urgant and is the first show of its kind on Russian television, and bases its format and look on similarly styled American late-night shows. (picture taken from Sergey Karjakin's facebook page)
Watch the 52-minute video of the closing ceremony
Photos by Amruta Mokal of ChessBase India
Pairings and results
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Note that ChessBase did daily one-hour roundup shows after each round
Chess Prodigies Uncovered:
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By IM Lorin D'CostaLinks
Discussion and Feedback
Join the public discussion or submit your feedback to the editors
The 4 picture set with Topalov and Nakamura is great. Both had not the tournament which they wanted, but on the end they have their smiles.
I bet nobody knows how to beat Magnus. Maybe only Kramnik has some ideas. I hope he will help Sergey. We, Russia, should use all our resources to bring the crown back home.
The match between Sergey Karjakin & Magnus Carlsen is going to be close. They are the same vintage and I believe Russia wants the title bad enough that they will pull out all the stops to support their man in NY.
Fair enough, he looks young. Bit of a Peter Pan / Doogie Howser MD thing there.
But giving the lad a toy car is a bit much.
But giving the lad a toy car is a bit much.
Lately I"ve noticed that Chessbase seems to have stars in its eyes. A lot of their stories are playing up the glitz and glamour of chess. (??) Yeah right. I mean, it's nice to see photos of each player arriving at the playing venue every day, but is it really that exciting?
Chessbase has become the Entertainment Tonight of the chess web sites.
Chessbase has become the Entertainment Tonight of the chess web sites.
The drama Karjakin faced is almost equal to the drama Carlsen had in the candidates tournament. I'm not be surprised if we get a new world champion this year; from being just a second to Ruslan Ponomariov in the olden days to being the challenger himself, that is Sergey Karjakin! I was surprised that Karjakin has now managed to win against mighty Anand after all these years.
Is there anyone who share the unwanted record of Topalov, who finished the candidates at last place for two successive Candidates?
Has this some similarity to the Spassky - Fischer match of 1972?
Best wishes to Sergey from Greece.
Guys do not forget, Karja became the youngest ever GM in history aged 12 years and 7 months. That record still stands. Unfortunately so far he has not been able to convert his immense talent into expected results at highest level. However for last few months he has been keeping high level of play and in doing so he won two consecutive events he participate in - World Cup and Candidates, which is a quite achievement (both tournaments are gruelling). His defensive skills are legendary and unlike Giri, who is great defender too, Sergey knows to deliver a killer blow to opponent and to take a calculated risk - his first game against Fabi with black pieces was probably game of the tournament. Two sacrifices, first queen and later knight, were spectacular considering importance of tournament. Magnus' biggest strength is endgame which is, by many, second only to Capablanca's. In first match vs Anand Carlsen was much stronger then in second one when he got away with terrible blunder in game 6. I have said this so many times but I say again, had he lost game 6 with white pieces retaining title would have been very tough task even for him - but Anand reblundered. When under pressure Carlsen is very vulnerable and in forthcoming match Karjakin has nothing to lose. Last year's Norway Chess was typical example - after losing first game vs Topa under weird circumstances remaining games were pure torture for him. On the other hand Karjakin has great mental stamina, playing so well under pressure with nerves of steel. Among all potential challengers only Sergey and Fabi could give Magnus run for his money - their h2h vs MC is very close and both are very young. Giri's h2h vs MC is positive but this guy is harmless for MC, in best case he would have drawn 11 games and lost one. MC is favorite but not by much. If match had taken place last year MC would have been dethroned. Only very beggining and very end of year were good for him, between April and December he suffered too many defeats. I wish Karja best luck and hope we will see new world chess champion.
hopefully it will not turn into a karnajakin against carlsen
Congrats Karjakin !
Whoever wins, hoping for an exciting match. Do wish it were 24 games like the old days! I think Karjaken can be quite competitive, but it's tough to choose against Carlsen these days. Bigger upsets have happened though!
nice games, nice reports, interesting result - but miserable event because of substandard AGON
Sergey is going to get crushed by Magnus.
Congratulations to Sergey and his loved ones for a well-deserved result. Years of hard work and tenacity have paid off, leading to a shot at the title. Looking forward to the match in November.
best wishes to karja! looking forward to an exciting november match!
PGN only for rounds 1-5 given what about the rest?
Sergey krasauchik!!! :)
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