Chess in a former Silk Road oasis

The 6th Ferdowsi Tournament in Mashhad

Photos: Sergei Tiviakov

Can a chess club have a more suitable building?

The majority of he 178 players who took part in the 6th International Ferdowsi Tournament in Mashhad came from Iran but there were also players from Azerbaijan and Armenia, Russia and Ukraine. With eleven Grandmasters and a number of International Masters the field was reasonably strong.

After nine rounds the Russians Pavel Maletin and Maksim Chigaev shared first place with 7.5/9. They both did not lose a single game but scored six wins and three draws. However, first on tie-break points was Maletin. Half a point behind the leaders followed eight players with 7.0/9 each. Third on tie-break was GM Gadir Guseinov from Azerbaijan.

Final Standings

... 178 players (Source: chess-results.com)

Pavel Maletin

In round five Maletin scored a crucial win by beating Guseinov with Black. In a Sicilian Najdorf Maletin attacked in textbook-fashion.

Maksim Chigaev

GM Gadir Guseinov from Azerbaijan

Iranian Grandmaster Darin Pouria

GM Merab Gagunashvili from Georgia

GM Karen Grigoryan from Armenia

Tournament director Mousavi Ghods Hossein

The arbiters

Mashhad

According to Wikipedia "Mashhad is the second most populous city in Iran and capital of Razavi Khorasan Province. It is located in the northeast of the country, close to the borders of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. Its population was 2,749,374 at the 2011 census and its built-up (or metro) area was home to 2,782,976 inhabitants including Mashhad Taman and Torqabeh cities. It was a major oasis along the ancient Silk Road connecting with Merv in the East.

The city is most famous and revered for housing the tomb of Imam Reza, the eighth Shia Imam. Every year, millions of pilgrims visit the Imam Reza shrine and pay their tributes to Imam Reza.

Mashhad is also known as the city of Ferdowsi, the Iranian poet of Shahnameh, which is considered to be the national epic of Iran. The city is the hometown of some of the most significant Iranian literary figures and artists such as Mehdi Akhavan-Sales, the famous contemporary poet, and Mohammad-Reza Shajarian, the traditional Iranian singer and composer. Ferdowsi and Akhavan Sales are both buried in Tus, an ancient city that is considered to be the main origin of the current city of Mashhad."

Links Official tournament site Download all games in PGN You can use ChessBase or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs to replay the games in PGN. You can also download our free Playchess client, which will in addition give you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com.