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The traditional Moscow Blitz Championship, believe it or not the 66th in a row, was held on September 2nd in the grounds of the Institute of Architecture, Media and Design. The event lasted six hours and was conducted in six subgroups: men, women, veterans (men and women), boys and girls, a tournament among journalists and an amateur tournament. Despite the inclement weather conditions at the venue it turned out to be a championship at the highest level.
During the colorful opening ceremony – see video below – there were welcome speeches by the President of the International Chess Federation Kirsan Ilyumzhinov (above right), the head of the Department of Physical Culture and Sport in Moscow Alexei Vorobiev, and the president of the Moscow Chess Federation Vladimir Palikhata.
The 66th Moscow Blitz Championship under way
Alexander Morozevich in action in the main blitz tournament...
... and with his trophy after winning it
The winner of the championship was Alexander Morozevich, one of the strongest grandmasters around, who won the trophy for the sixth time. Morozevich took the lead from the start and did not give it up, finishing the championship with 17 out of 21 possible points. He was awarded a cup and a gold medal from Moskomsport. Silver was won by Vladimir Malakhov, who was two full points behind the winner. Nicholas Chadaev won the bronze medal, collecting 14.5 points.
WGM Karina Ambartsumova became the champion of the Moscow Women's Blitz tournament. In the youth tournament, FIDE Master Vyacheslav Tilicheev won "gold", and in the girl's competition trophy and medal were won by Olga Grigorieva. The winner of the championship among veterans was GM Yuri Balashov, second was IM Anatoly Shvedchikov, third FM Oleg Zilbert. In the women veterans competition, WGM Galina Strutinskaya triumphed, with Elena Fatalibekova in second place and FM Nadezhda Kalashnikov in third. The journalists' tournament was won by Konstantin Kodynets.
Here are the final standings of the main Blitz tournament after 21 rounds:
Rk. |
Ti. |
Name | FED |
Rtg |
Pts. |
TB1 |
1 |
GM |
Morozevich Alexander | RUS |
2781 |
17.0 |
164.75 |
2 |
GM |
Malakhov Vladimir | RUS |
2700 |
15.0 |
146.00 |
3 |
GM |
Chadaev Nikolai | RUS |
2705 |
14.5 |
132.00 |
4 |
GM |
Nepomniachtchi Ian | RUS |
2666 |
14.0 |
134.00 |
5 |
IM |
Belous Vladimir | RUS |
2542 |
14.0 |
131.00 |
6 |
GM |
Bareev Evgeny | RUS |
2663 |
13.5 |
133.75 |
7 |
GM |
Dreev Aleksey | RUS |
2705 |
13.5 |
123.25 |
8 |
GM |
Grigoriants Sergey | RUS |
2549 |
13.0 |
115.00 |
9 |
GM |
Popov Ivan | RUS |
2661 |
12.5 |
110.75 |
10 |
GM |
Grachev Boris | RUS |
2695 |
12.5 |
106.75 |
11 |
GM |
Korotylev Alexey | RUS |
2573 |
12.0 |
108.50 |
12 |
GM |
Glek Igor | GER |
2420 |
11.5 |
109.00 |
13 |
GM |
Dubov Daniil | RUS |
2589 |
10.5 |
91.25 |
14 |
GM |
Dlugy Maxim | USA |
2519 |
9.0 |
77.00 |
15 |
GM |
Khruschiov Alexey | MDA |
2441 |
8.5 |
76.00 |
16 |
GM |
Rychagov Andrey | RUS |
2424 |
8.5 |
68.00 |
17 |
FM |
Seliverstov Vladimir | RUS |
2494 |
7.5 |
64.25 |
18 |
IM |
Dvalishvili Pavel S | RUS |
2537 |
7.0 |
61.25 |
19 |
IM |
Reshetnikov Alexey | RUS |
2503 |
5.5 |
52.25 |
20 |
FM |
Kalinichev Andrey | EST |
2414 |
5.5 |
43.25 |
21 |
GM |
Smagin Sergey | RUS |
2551 |
3.5 |
25.50 |
22 |
GM |
Zlochevskij Alexander | ITA |
2489 |
2.5 |
19.00 |
And here is the table as shown on the Moscow web site:
We should add that a robot chess player, designed by Konstantin Kosteniuk (above left, father of Alexandra), played a blitz simultaneously on three boards with any comers. FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov played a couple of games against it and then had the idea of staging a robot chess tournament on Mars. We kid you not. Ilyumzhinov, it seems, will propose the project to NASA, with whom he is scheduled to meet in the next few days.
Source: official web site
