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
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.
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)
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Sergey Karjakin hit the headlines in 2002 when he became the world’s youngest ever grandmaster aged just 12 years and 7 months, a record which shocked the chess world and still stands today.
In this new series with ChessBase, IM Lorin D’Costa investigates the famous prodigy focusing mainly on Sergey’s early career from aspiring nine-year-old up to grandmaster at twelve, culminating in his current world top ten status, and on who his rivals are for the title of world champion.
Not many chess players can say they defeated a grandmaster at age 11, but Sergey did when he defeated Pavel Eljanov in the Ukrainian Team Championships in 2001, and from a level endgame at that! How did Sergey defeat one of the world’s best players, Alexei Shirov, with masterful precision at the age of just 12? How did Sergey grind down the reigning world champion Vladimir Kramnik in 2004 in an opposite coloured bishop ending in the Dortmund playoff aged just 14? Enjoy these and many other scintillating games, along with the new ChessBase interactive format of Question & Answer, to enjoy an interesting documentary about one of the strongest players in modern day chess and his road from young prodigy to grandmaster and beyond!
Amruta MokalAmruta Mokal is a professional chess player with four WIM norms, but also an enthusiastic photographer who loves to cover tournaments, capturing various expressions and emotions of players engrossed in the game. She is the wife of ChessBase editor Sagar Shah, with whom she has founded ChessBase India.
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.
bondsergey 4/4/2016 04:39
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.
ottawahpp 4/3/2016 09:42
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.
jackie 4/2/2016 03:57
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.
johnmk 4/2/2016 01:58
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.
Denix 4/2/2016 01:53
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.
thlai80 4/1/2016 03:12
Is there anyone who share the unwanted record of Topalov, who finished the candidates at last place for two successive Candidates?
Denix 3/31/2016 02:04
Has this some similarity to the Spassky - Fischer match of 1972?
sotoli321 3/31/2016 12:12
Best wishes to Sergey from Greece.
Bojan KG 3/30/2016 11:35
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.
libyantiger 3/30/2016 06:21
hopefully it will not turn into a karnajakin against carlsen
chandrahasan 3/30/2016 03:36
Congrats Karjakin !
bbrodinsky 3/30/2016 02:09
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!
binnun 3/30/2016 02:07
nice games, nice reports, interesting result - but miserable event because of substandard AGON
Magic_Knight 3/30/2016 08:32
Sergey is going to get crushed by Magnus.
Logos 3/30/2016 06:34
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.
ulyssesganesh 3/30/2016 05:32
best wishes to karja! looking forward to an exciting november match!
karavamudan 3/30/2016 03:17
PGN only for rounds 1-5 given what about the rest?
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By IM Lorin D'Costa
