
Pictorial review of Aerosvit-2008
By WGM Anastasiya Karlovich
The Aerosvit-2008 tournament, which was conducted in the sanatorium complex
“Foros” in the settlement Foros of the AR Crimea, finished 19th
of June with convincing victory of a young Norwegian talent, who was able to
fix first place one days earlier then the official end of the tournament was.

All fans, realtives and journalists moved to press center to watch the games
of the last round

TV screens with games. During the tournament more then 100,000 people visited
the official web site of the Aerosvit tournament. There were mostly from USA
and European countries.

Karjakin is ready to play for a win and for second place...

...but Magnus Carlsen doesn't want to give that chance to the opponent

The key game of the tournament: Sergey Karjakin vs Magnus Carlsen

Another important game in the last round, which fixed the places of the
prize winners

A tough game for Pavel Eljanov – Vasiliy Ivanchuk is always a difficult
opponent for him; the +3 score for Ivanchuk proves it

Ivanchuk's relaxed fight for second place

Andrey Volokitin before his game with Evgeniy Alekseev. This victory brought
him the special prize “for the best ending”

Aleksei Shirov on his way to the next win, with black against Onishuk. Shirov
set up the absolute record of decided games: only three out of eleven finished
in a draw.

This game between Svidler Peter and Loek Van Wely ended in a draw, because
Loek did not find better continuation on his 30th move

The official commentator of the event, GM Mikhail Golubev, discusses
the games with GM Dmitri Yakovenko (seated) and the editor-in-chief of the popular
Russian magazine “64” Mark Glukhovski

Andrey Volokitin chats with Mark Gluhovskiy

A film crew makes a movie with Magnus Carsen and his father in Foros. A
number of Norwegian journalists visited the tournament, on the 15th of June
journalists from “New York Times” turned up to shoot a photo spread
with the Norwegian talent, which will be the part of the big general report
about him.

At the closing ceremony Alexei Shirov receives a special prize for “the
best attack” in his game against Dmitri Yakovenko. The special prize for
"the largest number of wins with black” was divided between Magnus
Carsen, Alexei Shirov, Vasiliy Ivanchuk and Pavel Eljanov. The prize for “the
best endgame” was taken by Andrey Volokitin.

The press conference with Ivanchuk and Carlsen after the closing ceremony

Magnus gives an interview to a Norwegian journalist – a great opportunity
to speak Norwegian in Ukraine

An interview with winner of the “Aerosvit 2008”

... one with runner up Vasily Ivanchuk

Group photo of all the participantst, arbiters and sponsors

The father of Magnus, Henrik Carlen, with Loek Van Wely during the closing
banquet. Magnus didn't give many interviews and left the hall soon after the
ceremony, because of the EURO-2008 football match between Portugal and Germany.
It is well known he is a big fan of soccer and couldn't miss such an interesting
game. Who was his favorite? Let's keep that a secret…

Sergey Kariakin and Pavel Eljanov
Short interview with Sergey Karjakin
Sergey answered some of my questions consierning his play in Foros and participating
in a match with Nigel Short.
Are you satisfying with your result in the tournament?
Well, it was not as good as last year, because in the previous Aerosvit I took
the second place. But in any case to be a prize winner is always a place of
honour.
Which game was the most difficult, and which one was the most interesting
for you in the tournament?
I think the most difficult was the game against Svidler. White developed big
initiative on the kingside, and it was difficult to defend. The most interesting
game was against Shirov in round six. He sacrificed his knight and then his
queen for a rook and bishop.
You didn't take any special prize here, but do you like the idea to have
such prizes?
It's always good if the organizers make such prizes. I definitely support this
idea..
What are your plans for the future?
After two weeks I'll be taking part in a match against Nigel Short. The match
will be conducted in the capital of Ukraine, the city of Kiev – ten rapid
games in five days. At first the organizers wanted to keep classic time controls,
but as rapid chess matches are becoming popular they changed their mind and
decided to go for rapid time controls in our match.
How do you estimate your chances in the match?
Well, if we look to the rating list we can see my Elo is 80 points higher
then Short's. But of course Nigel Short is very strong player, and I'll have
to prepare for the match very seriously.
Are you superstitious person?
Yes, I am. But I am not telling you anything specific because I don't want
my opponents to know about it.

The little Aerosvit plane on the shores of the Black Sea
About the author
Anastasiya (Nastja) Karlovich was Ukrainian champion
and vice-champion among girls under 16, 18 and 20. She was European
Champion with the Ukrainian team in the Youth Team Championships. She
is also
- a candidate officer in the National Law Academy “Yaroslav the Wise”,
- a member of the chess club “Law Academy”
- a member of the German club Grosslehna
- one of the organisers of WGM and GM closed tournaments “Cup of
Rector”.
- a Woman Grandmaster since 2003
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Links
The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the
chess server Playchess.com.
If you are not a member you can download
the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access.
You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse the PGN games. |
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