Tashir Super-Tournament starts in hours

The International tournament Tashir memory Tigran Petrosian held in Moscow from 3 to 11 November 2014. Round Robin, seven rounds. Time control: 100 minutes for 40 moves + 50 minutes for 20 moves + 15 minutes to the end of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from the first. Match days: 4-6, November 8-11. November 7 - the day off. The tours start at 15.00, the last 7 tour will begin at 13.00 Moscow time. Limit of delay - 60 minutes. Players are forbidden to enter into negotiations for a draw before the 40th move, inclusive. The prize fund - 100 thousand euros. Chief Judge of the tournament - Boris Postovsky. The Chairman of the Appeals Committee - Rafael Vaganyan (Armenia).

The competitors are:

A group of exciting players can be counted in this tournament, and fighting chess will abound for sure.

Today was the opening ceremony and the drawing of lots:

FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov opened the event

Karjakin and his wife have just returned from Tashkent, but they attended the opening gala. Leko will be playing in Moscow and he is here with his wife, Sofia.

Dirk Jan ten Guzendam, famous chess journalist for New in Chess, here with the lowest rated participant of the eventby a significant margin: Ernesto Inarkiev.

Gracing the event with their presence: Svetlana Matveeva and Valentina Gunina

Gelfand takes no breaks! This is his third consecutive tournament;
he played the Grand Prix in both Baku and Tashkent.

Another world class chess journalist: Leontxo Garcia here with Nelly Denisenko,
a close friend of the Kasparov family

Sign right there!

An immortalized wall

Live music could not miss in such an event, of course

Grischuk drawing his pairing number; he will have more whites than blacks

The main prize for the winner of the International Tashir Chess Tournament in memory of Tigran Petrosian, in addition to the main cash prize, will be a bronze statue of a victorious Nike with a laurel wreath in her hands, which has been specially created for the games by the famous Russian sculptor Georgy Frangulyan.

The sculpture is a bronze statue of two separate hemispheres that are united by the hovering winged goddess of victory Nike, which proclaims and personifies the victory. The artwork symbolises the two hemispheres of the earth, two players, unified with a spirit of challenge and triumph.

Georgy Frangulyan comments: "I had gladly accepted the proposal to create the prize for the International Tashir Chess Tournament in memory of Tigran Petrosian, my fellow countryman. It is a great honour, and I am pleased that one of the greatest players in the world will receive this symbol of victory. It seems to me that the statue might look quite elegantly on a chess board as a figure that determines the fate of the game."

In attendance: Kosteniuk, Gunina and Girya

Aronian, Leko, Gelfand, Inarkiev and Morozevich. Ding Liren,
Grischuk and Morozevich are missing from the picture.

Aronian enjoying himself in the ceremony

With only seven rounds in the event every single game will be of utmost importance. The pairings are as follows; join the action from the official website or on www.playchess.com!

Photos by Boris Dolmatovsky and Vladimir Barsky and  information by E. Kublashvili

Links Official tournament site 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 a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.