
The Awesome Aeroflot Returns
This year, the Aeroflot Open in Moscow returns once again to its now-traditional
venue, the tourist and hotel complex "Izmailovo". The nine-round Swiss
event takes place between 16 February (arrival date) and 27 February (departure
date), with the rounds being played between 17-25 February inclusive. On 26
February, a qualification tournament will take place, for the 2009 World Blitz
Championship. The total prize fund for the top group is Euro 70,000, with the
winner taking home Euro 21,000, plus a place in the Dortmund tournament, to
be held later this year.
The top section of the event is limited to players rated 2550 or over. The
76-player field includes only seven players who are not GMs, three of them being
WGMs. The top seed is Shakryar Mamedyarov, and the strength of the event is
shown by the fact that Loek van Wely, one of the few Western GMs to have been
a regular at the Aeroflot, is seeded just 28th! Bacrot, Naiditsch and
Milov are the other leading non-Russian/USSR representatives, whilst Ian Nepomniashy
is one of the former winners, who has returned to challenge for top honours
once again.
The official tournament website has seen some "interesting " features
in past years, most notably the days when the games were presented in the form
of scanned copies of the players' handwritten scoresheets! Dr Robert Hubner,
and others with a taste for papyrology, might have been able to make sense of
the games, but lesser mortals had rather a hard time. Happily, those days are
past, and this year, the site has the games of each round posted very promptly,
using the increasingly standard "Chess Theatre" display system. Less
impressively, however, the official site seems not yet to have awoken to the
existence of the digital camera, and consequently we find ourselves devoid of
photographic images of any kind.
After four rounds, the lead in the tournament is held by Igor Kurnosov, whom
regular readers of the ChessBase news page will know as the winner of the recent
Hastings tournament. Kurnosov is the only player on 3/3, and is followed by
Mamedyarov, Moiseenko, Tomashevsky and Grachev, on 2.5. Naiditsch and Bacrot
are among those on 2, but van Wely has made a disastrous start with just 0.5/3,
and is languishing on board 37, in Friday's fourth round pairings.
Standings after three rounds
# |
Player |
FED |
Rtng |
Pts. |
Perf. |
w-We |
1 |
GM Kurnosov, Igor |
3.0 |
RUS |
2602 |
3298 |
+1.35 |
2 |
GM Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar |
2.5 |
AZE |
2724 |
2853 |
+0.42 |
3 |
GM Moiseenko, Alexander |
2.5 |
UKR |
2676 |
2870 |
+0.67 |
4 |
GM Tomashevsky, Evgeny |
2.5 |
RUS |
2664 |
2865 |
+0.70 |
5 |
GM Grachev, Boris |
2.5 |
RUS |
2655 |
2859 |
+0.72 |
6 |
GM Bacrot, Etienne |
2.0 |
FRA |
2722 |
2714 |
-0.04 |
7 |
GM Naiditsch, Arkadij |
2.0 |
GER |
2693 |
2734 |
+0.16 |
8 |
GM Vitiugov, Nikita |
2.0 |
RUS |
2687 |
2728 |
+0.16 |
9 |
GM Sargissian, Gabriel |
2.0 |
ARM |
2677 |
2705 |
+0.10 |
10 |
GM Smirin, Ilia |
2.0 |
ISR |
2647 |
2686 |
+0.15 |
11 |
GM Aleksandrov, Aleksej |
2.0 |
BLR |
2636 |
2698 |
+0.23 |
12 |
GM Zvjaginsev, Vadim |
2.0 |
RUS |
2636 |
2701 |
+0.25 |
13 |
GM Riazantsev, Alexander |
2.0 |
RUS |
2634 |
2686 |
+0.20 |
14 |
GM Kazhgaleyev, Murtas |
2.0 |
KAZ |
2630 |
2696 |
+0.26 |
15 |
GM So, Wesley |
2.0 |
PHI |
2627 |
2662 |
+0.12 |
16 |
GM Landa, Konstantin |
2.0 |
RUS |
2626 |
2722 |
+0.37 |
17 |
GM Petrosian, Tigran L. |
2.0 |
ARM |
2623 |
2657 |
+0.13 |
18 |
GM Lysyj, Igor |
2.0 |
RUS |
2620 |
2754 |
+0.53 |
19 |
GM Potkin, Vladimir |
2.0 |
RUS |
2613 |
2711 |
+0.39 |
20 |
GM Zhou, Jianchao |
2.0 |
CHN |
2612 |
2744 |
+0.53 |
21 |
GM Ehlvest, Jaan |
2.0 |
USA |
2595 |
2696 |
+0.41 |
22 |
GM Smirnov, Pavel |
2.0 |
RUS |
2579 |
2805 |
+0.91 |
23 |
GM Romanov, Evgeny |
2.0 |
RUS |
2576 |
2786 |
+0.85 |
24 |
GM Zhigalko, Andrey |
2.0 |
BLR |
2572 |
2783 |
+0.85 |
25 |
GM Grigoriants, Sergey |
2.0 |
RUS |
2565 |
2769 |
+0.83 |
26 |
GM Safarli, Eltaj |
2.0 |
AZE |
2564 |
2769 |
+0.83 |
27 |
IM Ponkratov, Pavel |
2.0 |
RUS |
2557 |
2744 |
+0.76 |
28 |
GM Dziuba, Marcin |
2.0 |
POL |
2556 |
2751 |
+0.80 |
29 |
GM Melkumyan, Hrant |
2.0 |
ARM |
2519 |
2747 |
+0.93 |
30 |
GM Dreev, Alexey |
1.5 |
RUS |
2688 |
2551 |
-0.55 |
31 |
GM Amonatov, Farrukh |
1.5 |
TJK |
2647 |
2568 |
-0.32 |
32 |
GM Bareev, Evgeny |
1.5 |
RUS |
2645 |
2565 |
-0.33 |
33 |
GM Mamedov, Rauf |
1.5 |
AZE |
2638 |
2563 |
-0.30 |
34 |
GM Li, Chao b |
1.5 |
CHN |
2628 |
2546 |
-0.34 |
35 |
GM Nepomniachtchi, Ian |
1.5 |
RUS |
2628 |
2559 |
-0.29 |
36 |
GM Pashikian, Arman |
1.5 |
ARM |
2621 |
2538 |
-0.34 |
37 |
GM Akobian, Varuzhan |
1.5 |
USA |
2619 |
2521 |
-0.41 |
38 |
GM Ghaem Maghami, Ehsan |
1.5 |
IRI |
2604 |
2610 |
+0.02 |
39 |
GM Huzman, Alexander |
1.5 |
ISR |
2602 |
2551 |
-0.20 |
40 |
GM Vaganian, Rafael A |
1.5 |
ARM |
2596 |
2582 |
-0.05 |
41 |
GM Zhigalko, Sergei |
1.5 |
BLR |
2587 |
2696 |
+0.44 |
42 |
GM Khairullin, Ildar |
1.5 |
RUS |
2574 |
2605 |
+0.13 |
43 |
GM Chuprov, Dmitry |
1.5 |
RUS |
2571 |
2547 |
-0.10 |
44 |
GM Shomoev, Anton |
1.5 |
RUS |
2567 |
2673 |
+0.43 |
45 |
GM Andriasian, Zaven |
1.5 |
ARM |
2564 |
2644 |
+0.32 |
46 |
GM Kotsur, Pavel |
1.5 |
KAZ |
2563 |
2638 |
+0.31 |
47 |
GM Sjugirov, Sanan |
1.5 |
RUS |
2562 |
2578 |
+0.06 |
48 |
IM Yudin, Sergei |
1.5 |
RUS |
2562 |
2646 |
+0.34 |
49 |
GM Filippov, Anton |
1.5 |
UZB |
2556 |
2634 |
+0.33 |
50 |
GM Dyachkov, Sergej |
1.5 |
RUS |
2553 |
2610 |
+0.23 |
51 |
GM Maslak, Konstantin |
1.5 |
RUS |
2541 |
2622 |
+0.34 |
52 |
WGM Shen, Yang |
1.5 |
CHN |
2448 |
2574 |
+0.51 |
53 |
GM Onischuk, Alexander |
1.0 |
USA |
2659 |
2456 |
-0.82 |
54 |
GM Predojevic, Borki |
1.0 |
BIH |
2650 |
2435 |
-0.87 |
55 |
GM Rodshtein, Maxim |
1.0 |
ISR |
2650 |
2438 |
-0.86 |
56 |
GM Bocharov, Dmitry |
1.0 |
RUS |
2647 |
2432 |
-0.86 |
57 |
GM Volkov, Sergey |
1.0 |
RUS |
2627 |
2425 |
-0.82 |
58 |
GM Bartel, Mateusz |
1.0 |
POL |
2594 |
2503 |
-0.36 |
59 |
GM Maze, Sebastien |
1.0 |
FRA |
2578 |
2498 |
-0.31 |
60 |
IM Chadaev, Nikolai |
1.0 |
RUS |
2568 |
2498 |
-0.28 |
61 |
GM Li, Shilong |
1.0 |
CHN |
2559 |
2455 |
-0.41 |
62 |
GM Vazquez Igarza, Renier |
1.0 |
ESP |
2558 |
2453 |
-0.41 |
63 |
GM Zherebukh, Yaroslav |
1.0 |
UKR |
2558 |
2509 |
-0.19 |
64 |
GM Minasian, Artashes |
1.0 |
ARM |
2557 |
2510 |
-0.18 |
65 |
GM Zhou, Weiqi |
1.0 |
CHN |
2542 |
2509 |
-0.12 |
66 |
GM Grigoryan, Avetik |
1.0 |
ARM |
2506 |
2432 |
-0.29 |
67 |
GM Wen, Yang |
1.0 |
CHN |
2504 |
2480 |
-0.09 |
68 |
IM Kosintseva, Tatiana |
1.0 |
RUS |
2497 |
2496 |
+0.01 |
69 |
IM Ipatov, Alexander |
1.0 |
ESP |
2493 |
2464 |
-0.11 |
70 |
GM Ajrapetjan, Yuriy |
1.0 |
UKR |
2490 |
2456 |
-0.12 |
71 |
GM Milov, Vadim |
0.5 |
SUI |
2669 |
2297 |
-1.41 |
72 |
GM Van Wely, Loek |
0.5 |
NED |
2625 |
2278 |
-1.32 |
73 |
GM Kotanjian, Tigran |
0.5 |
ARM |
2568 |
2254 |
-1.17 |
74 |
GM Ragger, Markus |
0.5 |
AUT |
2540 |
2348 |
-0.67 |
75 |
IM Kosintseva, Nadezhda |
0.5 |
RUS |
2486 |
2347 |
-0.46 |
76 |
IM Salem, A.R. Saleh |
0.5 |
UAE |
2473 |
2286 |
-0.65 |
77 |
IM Robson, Ray |
0.5 |
USA |
2455 |
2299 |
-0.52 |
78 |
GM Gajewski, Grzegorz |
0.0 |
POL |
2581 |
1845 |
-1.51 |
Vitiugov,Nikita - Maze,Sebastien
Aeroflot Open 2009 Moscow (1.5), 2009
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5 4.d5 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.e4 g6 7.f4 Bg7 8.Bb5+ Nfd7
9.Nf3 0–0 10.0–0 a6 11.Bd3 b5 12.Kh1 Re8 13.a3 c4 14.Bc2 Nc5 15.f5 Nbd7 16.Bg5
Bf6 17.h4 Ne5 18.Nxe5 Rxe5
19.fxg6 Bxg5 20.gxf7+ Kf8 21.Qh5 Bd7 22.Qxh7 Bf6 23.Rf4 Bh3 24.Raf1 Nd7
25.gxh3 1–0.
Report compiled by Steve Giddins