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Twelve rounds have been completed at the Candidates tournament 2016. I hope you are enjoying ChessBase’s round-by-round reporting and pictorial impressions. This pictorial report deals with some of the non-chess playing pictures, and different personalities who have visited the playing venue in the past fortnight.
Hikaru Nakamura has with him his old and trusted second Kris Littlejohn. The American
grandmaster’s preparation had not been up to snuff until round eleven, but in the twelfth
he had everything covered and credited his second for an excellent victory over Vishy Anand.
Silvio Danailov sits in the press center with his iPad looking at Veselin’s game. For the entire
duration of the game Danailov doesn’t move from his chair and is frantically analyzing the game
with the occasional “yes!” when Topalov makes the best move.
It is surprising that Vladimir Potkin, who is Karjakin’s second at the event, played the Aeroflot
Open which ended just a day before the Candidates. Had Wei Yi known that Potkin is Sergey’s
second he might have been more careful in the first round of the Aeroflot Open.
Anish Giri has great balance in his team: the serious and stern Vladimir Tukmakov and the
ever smiling and jovial Sopiko Guramishvili
The one-man-army, Levon Aronian, controls the heartbeats and ambitions of an entire nation.
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that Lev is the most famous sports personality in Armenia.
When it comes to chess in India, Vishy Anand is the only one player that the entire country knows
What a joy to see high quality chess on the big screen without any computer evaluations
to ruin the fun!
The man behind the entire show, AGON CEO Ilya Merenzon
Born in 1979, Natalia Zhukova has been representing Ukraine in the Olympiads since she
was just 17 years old! She was one of the main reasons why Ukraine won the gold medal
in 2006 Turin Olympiad. On board one she scored 7.5/10 with five wins and five draws.
Alexandra Ionova is managing tasks related to communications for the organizers.
She is from Mikhailov & Partners, a company rated as one of the Top 100 in the world
for communication and public relations.
Yana Sidorchuk is the head of the General Department of the Russian Chess Federation
Can you identify who this famous chess player is? She is a woman grandmaster and she
been the main subject in many of our reports since 2004!
Eteri Kublashivili, who is an excellent photographer, is the press officer
for the Russian Chess Federation
Russian Chess Federation Chairman of the Management board Mark Glukhovsky
Andreas Kontokanis (left) shares a joke with Evgeny Sveshnikov – the founder of the Sveshnikov
Variation in the Sicilian
One man brought this old chess board to the tournament. I was inquisitive and asked him
to show what was inside it…
Simply amazing! The first twelve World Champions with signatures from Vassily Smyslov
and Anatoly Karpov!
And he sincerely believes that he has got the autograph of the future World Champion!
Twelfth World Champion Anatoly Karpov is 64 years old now but still looks as youthful as ever!
“I play chess because I love the game” – Boris Gelfand
The French chess talent is now a successful entrepreneur in Moscow – Joel Lautier
The watchful eyes of Vladimir Tukmakov and Sopiko Guramishvili never miss a move
When the legendary trainer Mark Dvoretsky comes to the playing hall, he discusses the
games with his former students. Here he is seen with Ernesto Inarkiev.
In 1996 when Topalov was suffering from endgame deficiencies, he made his way to Moscow
and worked for a week with Mark. The result was there for everyone to see. He gained nearly
80 Elo points that year!
Official FIDE chess sets kept outside the playing hall are a great joy for youngsters!
Saint Basil’s Cathedral, now a museum, is located in the Red Square. The building is shaped
like the flame of a bonfire rising into the sky.
Exquisite architecture at the Red Square
A good meal is always appreciated after a hard day’s work!
Your author and photographer at the Red Square!
If you like the pictures, then do like Amruta Mokal’s photography page on Facebook. You can find more pictures on that page.
If you would like pictures in high resolution for your newspaper, magazine or website, you can contact her at her email.
You can get updates about the Candidates by following her on Twitter.
