Vladimir Fedoseev wins Aeroflot Open 2017

Photos from Vasily Papin's blog and Eteri Kublashvili (EK)

Vladimir Fedoseev was leading the last round at the Aeroflot Open 2017 with 6.5/8. He was followed by Nikita Vitiugov and Evgeniy Najer at 6.0/8. A lot was at stake in the final round for Fedoseev. It goes without saying that he is one of the best Russian talents. However, he has never really shown the performance he is capable of. If he maintained his nerves in check and played a good game against Vitiugov, it could be the biggest break in his chess career.

The fact that you have to pack your bags before the last round always adds to the pressure! Fortunately in Aeroflot, the last round also begins at the same time i.e 3 PM and not early morning like many other events

A small flashback

In the eighth round we had four Russians donning the top two tables. It was Fedoseev against Matlakov and Vitiugov versus Artemiev. Both the games were high in chess content and had plenty of points to learn from.

Alex Yermolinsky found these two games to be quite instructive and has sent us his analysis

Fedoseev - Matlakov (analysis by Alex Yermolinsky)

Vitiugov - Artemiev (analysis by Alex Yermolinsky)

Back to the final round

After those two wins by Fedoseev and Vitiugov in the eighth round, they both faced off against each other in the final round

Fedoseev managed to equalize without too many difficulties with black. He took the right breaks and Vitiugov wasn't in his best possible form, and the game petered out into equality pretty soon.

Vitiugov vs Fedoseev

The game between Najer and Yu Yangyi also ended in a draw. Hence, Fedoseev became the champion of the tournament with 7.0/9.

Fedoseev with the winner's trophy (EK)

Final Ranking after 9 Rounds (top 10)

Complete Standings

Aeroflot Open brings out the best in this man! Evgeniy Najer was the winner last year, and finished second in 2017 with a rating performance of 2823!

Khismatullin had been doing quite well throughout the event, but his last round defeat against Vladislav Kovalev will haunt him for many days to come!

Khismatullin vs Kovalev

These two young guys surely had a good time at the Aeroflot Open! (EK)

"You must always be ready to sacrifice a pawn for activity!" Gata Kamsky's advice was not just limited to words. Check out his last round game against Rinat Jumabayev (EK)

Jumabayev vs Kamsky

The biggest find of the tournament was definitely the Iranian Alireza Firouzja. He scored 6.0/9 and finished ninth. It goes without saying that he scored a GM norm. (Photo: Maria Emelianova)

What a performance! 2746, +33 Elo and wins gainst three strong German, a Russian and a Pervian grandmaster! Watch out for this boy! As an example just have a look at his last round victory. In a fist fight he managed to outplay a grandmaster rated 200 points above him!

Firouzja vs Cordova

Vidit vs Bindrich. Black has just played his knight to d6 and attacked the queen on c4. Can you find the move, which according to Vidit will be his favourite for many days to come?

Vidit vs Bindrich

Twelfth World Champion Anatoly Karpov came to visit the tournament

Aeroflot Blitz

The Aeroflot blitz was held on the next day after the last round. It is one of the most popular blitz events in the world. Although there are nine rounds, the players have to play 18 games (2 games with different colours against the same opponent). (EK)

Naturally, it is mentally and physically draining for the players... (EK)

....but the spectators have a nice time! (EK)

Anton Korobov simply crushed the field, scoring 15.5/18, two points more than his nearest rival, and returned home with the winner's purse of €5000. What's simply amazing is that Anton won eight out of his nine mini-matches, most with perfect 2.0/2 scores! (EK)

Top three places at the blitz tournament: Anton Korobov, Rauf Mamedov and Daniil Dubov (EK)

A great result by ChessBase author GM Alejandro Ramirez who scored 13.0/18 and finished fourth with a 2728 performance (EK)

Standings of Aeroflot Blitz 2017

Place	Title	Name		Fed.	FIDE	Total	Bch.	Wins	vs+
1	GM	Korobov, Anton		UKR	B 2734	15.5	100.00	8	105;67;48;56;94;26;88;9;
2	GM	Mamedov, Rauf		AZE	B 2765	13.5	107.00	6	103;65;31;8;6;15;
3	GM	Dubov, Daniil		RUS	B 2804	13.0	96.00	5	111;51;37;35;64;
4	GM	Ramirez, Alejandro		USA	B 2657	13.0	92.50	5	116;80;69;72;26;
5	GM	Artemiev, Vladislav		RUS	B 2785	13.0	88.00	6	102;190;78;97;94;53;
6	GM	Yu, Yangyi		CHN	B 2720	12.5	106.00	5	108;66;58;40;14;
7	GM	Vitiugov, Nikita		RUS	B 2670	12.5	98.00	6	114;76;97;52;70;66;
8	GM	Jobava, Baadur		GEO	B 2758	12.5	96.00	5	104;62;42;60;88;
9	GM	Kamsky, Gata		USA	B 2675	12.5	95.50	5	113;77;87;60;55;
10	GM	Khismatullin, Denis		RUS	B 2633	12.5	94.50	5	124;80;92;44;76;
11	GM	Gunina, Valentina		RUS	B 2595	12.5	88.00	5	138;106;95;34;32;
12	GM	Maghsoodloo, Parham		IRI	B 2539	12.0	96.50	6	132;3;23;13;8;25;
13	GM	Movsesian, Sergei		ARM	B 2641	12.0	94.50	5	120;72;54;1;51;
14	GM	Bindrich, Falko		GER	B 2564	12.0	93.00	6	152;101;99;20;22;21;
15	GM	Lysyj, Igor		RUS	B 2585	12.0	89.50	5	128;106;132;142;1;
16	GM	Fedoseev, Vladimir		RUS	B 2651	12.0	87.50	4	117;55;73;48;
17	GM	Berkes, Ferenc		HUN	B 2701	12.0	83.00	5	110;78;85;73;50;
18	FM	Esipenko, Andrey		RUS	B 2489	11.5	101.50	5	187;39;31;33;64;
19	GM	Cordova, Emilio		PER	B 2631	11.5	101.00	6	125;85;173;59;5;77;
20	GM	Indjic, Aleksandar		SRB	B 2534	11.5	91.50	5	165;125;126;135;7;

Complete final standings