Karjakin and Kosteniuk at the Luzhniki Sport Festival in Moscow
8/2/2012 – For the past five years the Moscow Chess Federation has organized a big chess holiday at the Olympic Sport Stadium Luzhniki, as part of the Moscow Sport Games festival. This world rapid chess champion Sergey Karjakin and former women's world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk were present. There were massive blitz competitions and simultaneous exhibitions. Great entertainment.
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Karjakin and Kosteniuk at the Luzhniki Sport Festival in Moscow
By Eldar Mukhametov and Ekaterina Sekenova – with pictures by Julia Manakova
Sergey Karjakin, the World Rapid Chess Champion, and Alexandra Kosteniuk, the former World Chess Champion and Honored Master of Sports of Russia, took part in the celebrations of Moscow sports at Moscow Sport Games festival held on July 28th at the Luzhniki Olympic Complex. Several competitions were held simultaneously at the chess section that has become one of the most attractive and massive sites of the festival. Here some pictorial impressions:
The semi-finals of the Moscow Blitz Championship, the main tournament of the day, gathered 106 participants. Grandmaster Andrey Rychagov took first place and thereby won his ticket to the finals. With 9.5 points out of 11, he was ahead IM Konstantin Mesropov and GM Ivan Popov according to additional indicators. Gleb Apryshko became the winner of the Moscow blitz semi-finals among juniors, also held at Luzhniki. He scored 9 points in nine rounds and outreached Stanislav Romanov on additional indicators. Vyacheslav Tilicheev came in third with 8.5 points.
The former World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk (above), who was recently awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports of Russia, took part in the awards ceremony for this tournament.
Alexandra came with her daughter Francesca (right) who participated in
the entertainment contests
One of the main events of the day was the simultaneous exhibition given by the World Rapid Chess Champion Sergey Karjakin (above). The titled grandmaster confronted 21 chess players and won 20 games.
Ten-year-old Semen Lomasov managed to make a draw with the champion
GM Anastasia Savina passed her test against chess amateurs before Karjakin.
The recent winner of the Russia Universiade won 14 games and made five draws.
The highlight of the day was the drawing of the main prize of the holiday. In the final competition on a large outdoor chessboard, which most of all resembled to a well-known “Battleship” game, the luckiest of more than 30 candidates was the current champion of Moscow GM Ivan Popov.
The Vice-President of Chess Federation of Moscow and GM Maria Manakova,
the
holiday presenter, handed him the main prize: a laptop.
Note that all the winners and prize-holders of the competitions that took place that day at Luzhniki, as well as the most adroit and lucky participants of the entertainment program, received gift sets with the official souvenirs of the Chess Federation of Moscow.
Aisa Imeeva, 18, rated 2095 on the FIDE scale, with her swag
A young chess enthusiast with the festival mascot
“We intend to continue to organize all our events as beautiful shows,” said Vladimir Palikhata, President of the Chess Federation of Moscow. “Chess should bring to Moscow residents a feeling of joy, of a holiday which is always with you”.
Organizers: Moscow Department of Physical Education and Sports), Chess Federation
of Moscow
Detailed information: +7 965 161 23 33 (Eldar Mukhametov)
