14-year-old Aydin Suleymanli is the champion of Aeroflot Open 2020

by Satanick Mukhuty - 28/02/2020

The Aeroflot Open 2020 ended yesterday in a tie for the first place between four players, namely Aydin Suleymanli, Rinat Jumabayev, Rauf Mamedov, and Aravindh Chithambaram. But of the four the 14-year-old Aydin had the best tie-break score and therefore was declared the rightful champion of the event. The Azerbaijani thus took back home a purse worth €13,875 (approx 11 Lakh rupees). From Aravindh crushing Sanan Sjugirov to Pranesh and Praggnanandhaa scoring nice miniature wins, a lot of action took place on the final day of the tournament. We bring you a comprehensive report from Moscow with games, analyses, photos, and more.

With Aydin Suleymanli, Rinat Jumabayev, Rauf Mamedov, and Aravindh Chithambaram all finishing with 6.5/9 points, the Aeroflot Open 2020 came to conclusion yesterday in a four-way tie. However, by virtue of having the best tie-break score, it was Aydin who was declared the rightful champion at the end of nine rounds of the event. The 14-year-old Azerbaijani not only managed to remain unbeaten but also secure a stupendous performance rating of 2791 taking down some of the favourites in the tournament like Parham Maghsoodloo and Vasif Durarbayli. To the Indian fans, the triple-crown National Champion Aravindh Chithambaram brought much reasons to cheer. After trailing behind the leaders for the last two rounds, he finally managed to catch up by defeating the strong Russian player Sanan Sjugirov. Rinat Jumabayev of Kazakhstan too made the climb atop the leaderboard in the final day of the event by beating Aleksandr Shimanov.

Aydin Suleymanli stunned one and all with his magnificent play. He came with a rating of just 2474 and started off as the 71st seed in the event but beat all odds to clinch the championship ahead of several 2600+ elite GMs | Photo: Lennart Ootes

No wonder he went back home with a whopping 38.1 gain in Elo points!

While an Azerbaijani youngster became the champion of the event, it was an Azerbaijani veteran who took away the 2nd runner-up prize. Rauf Mamedov too had an extraordinary time in Moscow. The 31-year-old was in the lead for the better part of the tournament and was easily the favourite to become the sole winner! | Photo: Alina l'Ami

In their last round encounter, Rauf didn't push his compatriot Aydin too much and happily split the point after 29 moves. The 14-year-old of course profited out of this arrangement and leapfrogged him in the tie-breaks!

Rinat Jumabayev became the runner-up. He defeated Aleksandr Shimanov in the last round with black pieces to climb atop the leaderboard | Photo: chessdailynews

Things didn't start off ideally for Rinat as he had to suffer a bitter defeat in the hands of the prodigious Javokhir Sindarov in the very first round of the event...

Aravindh Chithambaram was in his very element in the final round and registered a convincing win against Sanan Sjugirov. This victory enabled him to finish tied for the first place. However, based on tie-break scores, he had to settle for the 3rd runner-up title in the end | Photo: Puneet Jaiswal

Aravindh Chithambaram - Sanan Sjugirov, Round 9

Aravindh had the white pieces in the last round and chose the 3.cxd5 variation of the Slav defense against his Russian opponent.

The game took a sharp turn when Sanan decided to challenge Aravindh's f5 bishop with 10...Nh5

And here Black had to make a precise choice. In the game 13...Nxe5 14.Nxe5 Nf6 15.f4 allowed White to grab more space on the kingside, can you come up with an improvement?

Once again, something had to be done with White's vigorous expansion on the kingside. The game followed 18...Rc8 19.g5 and the Indian was clearly better thereafter. What would you do if you were in Black's shoes?

For Aravindh next it was all about pushing forward. There was no question of reverse gear.

And once the h-file opened up he duly took control of it with his rooks. Black simply had no counterplay.

Sanan could hardly do anything but witness Aravindh's boa constrictor slowly coil around him! Helpless, he captured 34...Nxe5 here, and this allowed 35.Qc5+ forcing a series of exchanges...

The position quickly liquidated into a rook-pawn ending where White was completely winning.

Thus, in the above position the Russian resigned. He really couldn't do anything. The exchange of rooks was practically forced following which the pawn ending would be an obvious victory for White.

Aravindh in action against Sanan | Photo: Puneet Jaiswal

Praggnanandhaa R. and Pranesh M scored quick 21-move wins in the ninth and final round of Aeroflot Open 2020. Both players had the black pieces and capitalized on early blunders made by their opponents Arseniy Nesterov and Mihail Nikitenko respectively. Finishing with 5.5/9 points, it was an average tournament for Praggnanandhaa who neither gained nor lost any rating points. But Pranesh fulfilled requirements for his final IM norm and thus he has become the the latest International Master of India. The 14-year-old made his first IM norm in Chennai Open 2019 and a GM norm in Delhi open 2020.

Praggnanandhaa had a normal event but Pranesh would certainly return home from Moscow with good memories | Photo: Puneet Jaiswal

Arseniy Nesterov - Praggnanandhaa R, Round 9

Arseniy carelessly played the move 17.Ne4? and this allowed Pragg to simply capture a couple pawns, first on h3 and then on g3.

Mihail Nikitenko - Pranesh M, Round 9

Can you see what White missed when he played the move 21.Nc3? Hint: Look at the white queen on e6.

Pranesh performed commendably well securing a performance of 2528 Elo.

Bharath Subramaniyam who had a superb tournament ended things on a good note by defeating Maksim Chigaev in the last round | Photo: Puneet Jaiswal

Photo Gallery

Adhiban Baskaran missed his chance to finish in the top five. He got a promising position against Mustafa Yilmaz but ended up drawing after a long 110-move battle | Photo: Puneet Jaiswal

Arjun Erigaisi defeated Indjic Aleksandar in the final round | Photo: Puneet Jaiswal

Aryan Chopra suffered his first defeat of the tournament in the last round against Vladislav Kovalev | Photo: Puneet Jaiswal

Vaibhav Suri held Parham Maghsoodloo to a draw in the last round and finished with a score of 5.0/9 | Photo: Puneet Jaiswal

Sethuraman drew Svane Rasmus and finished with 5.5/9 | Photo: Puneet Jaiswal

Sandipan Chanda had a forgettable event. He scored just 3.5 points and lost to the young Volodar Murzin in the last round | Photo: Puneet Jaiswal

Raunak Sadhwani finished off with a victory against Vasif Durarbayli. He scored 5.5 points in nine rounds | Photo: Puneet Jaiswal

Norms for Pranav and Rucha in Open B

14-year-old FM Pranav Anand made his third IM norm at Aeroflot Open B and only needs to meet his rating requirements to become the latest IM of the country. Rucha Pujari too performed well in the B category and made her second WGM norm | Photo: Niki Riga and Amruta Mokal

Results of final round

Bo.	No.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	FED	Rtg	No.
1	11	GM	Mamedov Rauf	AZE	2643	6	½ - ½	6	IM	Suleymanli Aydin	AZE	2474	71
2	15	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	IND	2630	5½	1 - 0	5½	GM	Sjugirov Sanan	RUS	2674	4
3	29	GM	Yilmaz Mustafa	TUR	2607	5½	½ - ½	5½	GM	Adhiban B.	IND	2654	6
4	42	GM	Shimanov Aleksandr	RUS	2587	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Jumabayev Rinat	KAZ	2646	8
5	17	GM	Paravyan David	RUS	2629	5½	½ - ½	5½	GM	Petrosyan Manuel	ARM	2590	40
6	5	GM	Sarana Alexey	RUS	2656	5	0 - 1	5	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	BLR	2592	38
7	9	GM	Rakhmanov Aleksandr	RUS	2645	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Smirin Ilia	ISR	2615	26
8	12	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	IND	2641	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Svane Rasmus	GER	2608	28
9	19	GM	Deac Bogdan-Daniel	ROU	2626	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Idani Pouya	IRI	2577	43
10	23	GM	Zhou Jianchao	CHN	2622	5	0 - 1	5	GM	Asadli Vugar	AZE	2538	56
11	1	GM	Artemiev Vladislav	RUS	2728	4½	½ - ½	5	GM	Antipov Mikhail Al.	RUS	2562	48
12	2	GM	Sargissian Gabriel	ARM	2689	4½	1 - 0	4½	GM	Sargsyan Shant	ARM	2594	36
13	39	GM	Vaibhav Suri	IND	2591	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	IRI	2674	3
14	7	GM	Kovalev Vladislav	BLR	2650	4½	1 - 0	4½	GM	Aryan Chopra	IND	2562	49
15	13	GM	Riazantsev Alexander	RUS	2639	4½	1 - 0	4½	GM	Sychev Klementy	RUS	2563	47
16	61	IM	Sadhwani Raunak	IND	2522	4½	1 - 0	4½	GM	Durarbayli Vasif	AZE	2625	20
17	21	GM	Zvjaginsev Vadim	RUS	2623	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Kunin Vitaly	GER	2550	54
18	46	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	IND	2563	4½	1 - 0	4½	GM	Indjic Aleksandar	SRB	2622	22
19	25	GM	Chigaev Maksim	RUS	2616	4½	0 - 1	4½	IM	Bharath Subramaniyam H	IND	2402	96
20	84	FM	Kardashevskiy Evgeny	RUS	2437	4½	0 - 1	4½	GM	Kobalia Mikhail	RUS	2609	27

Final Standings

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2
1	71	IM	Suleymanli Aydin	U18		AZE	2474	6,5	5	2622
2	8	GM	Jumabayev Rinat			KAZ	2646	6,5	5	2557
3	11	GM	Mamedov Rauf			AZE	2643	6,5	4	2578
4	15	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.			IND	2630	6,5	4	2558
5	38	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej			BLR	2592	6,0	5	2612
6	56	GM	Asadli Vugar			AZE	2538	6,0	5	2595
7	6	GM	Adhiban B.			IND	2654	6,0	5	2582
8	40	GM	Petrosyan Manuel			ARM	2590	6,0	4	2598
9	29	GM	Yilmaz Mustafa			TUR	2607	6,0	4	2574
10	17	GM	Paravyan David			RUS	2629	6,0	4	2569
11	96	IM	Bharath Subramaniyam H	U18		IND	2402	5,5	5	2626
12	4	GM	Sjugirov Sanan			RUS	2674	5,5	5	2605
13	43	GM	Idani Pouya			IRI	2577	5,5	5	2604
14	48	GM	Antipov Mikhail Al.			RUS	2562	5,5	5	2546
15	31	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	U18		IND	2602	5,5	5	2510
16	27	GM	Kobalia Mikhail			RUS	2609	5,5	5	2485
17	12	GM	Sethuraman S.P.			IND	2641	5,5	4	2588
18	61	IM	Sadhwani Raunak	U18		IND	2522	5,5	4	2572
19	9	GM	Rakhmanov Aleksandr			RUS	2645	5,5	4	2563
20	2	GM	Sargissian Gabriel			ARM	2689	5,5	4	2561

An overview of all Indian performances

SNo		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Pts.	Rk.	Group
6	GM	Adhiban B.	2654	IND	1	½	½	1	½	½	1	½	½	6,0	7	Open A
12	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2641	IND	1	1	½	½	0	½	½	1	½	5,5	17	Open A
14	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2637	IND	½	½	1	½	0	½	0	0	0	3,0	83	Open A
15	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2630	IND	0	1	1	½	1	½	1	½	1	6,5	4	Open A
30	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2602	IND	1	½	½	½	½	½	½	0	½	4,5	59	Open A
31	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	2602	IND	½	1	½	½	0	½	½	1	1	5,5	15	Open A
34	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2597	IND	½	1	½	½	0	½	½	½	0	4,0	74	Open A
39	GM	Vaibhav Suri	2591	IND	½	1	½	½	½	1	0	½	½	5,0	31	Open A
46	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2563	IND	0	1	½	1	½	1	0	½	1	5,5	25	Open A
49	GM	Aryan Chopra	2562	IND	½	½	½	1	½	½	½	½	0	4,5	40	Open A
53	GM	Chanda Sandipan	2552	IND	½	½	½	0	1	0	½	½	0	3,5	77	Open A
59	GM	Sengupta Deep	2534	IND	1	0	0	½	½	½	1	½	½	4,5	54	Open A
61	IM	Sadhwani Raunak	2522	IND	0	0	1	1	0	1	1	½	1	5,5	18	Open A
64	GM	Visakh N R	2518	IND	1	½	½	½	½	½	0	0	0	3,5	76	Open A
69	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2483	IND	0	0	1	0	1	0	1	0	1	4,0	73	Open A
70	IM	Rahul Srivatshav P	2474	IND	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0,0	97	Open A
73	IM	Raja Harshit	2472	IND	½	½	0	½	½	½	½	½	½	4,0	70	Open A
80	IM	Krishna C R G	2443	IND	½	0	0	1	1	½	½	½	½	4,5	44	Open A
83	IM	Sreeshwan Maralakshikari	2440	IND	½	0	0	½	1	½	0	0	½	3,0	80	Open A
85	IM	Vignesh N R	2436	IND	0	½	1	½	0	0	½	0	½	3,0	84	Open A
88	IM	Aditya Mittal	2427	IND	½	½	0	½	½	1	½	0	½	4,0	71	Open A
90	FM	Pranesh M	2425	IND	½	1	½	½	0	½	0	0	1	4,0	62	Open A
91	IM	Mendonca Leon Luke	2418	IND	½	0	1	½	0	½	0	0	½	3,0	85	Open A
96	IM	Bharath Subramaniyam H	2402	IND	1	½	1	1	0	½	0	½	1	5,5	11	Open A
97	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	2369	IND	½	0	½	0	½	½	0	0	1	3,0	88	Open A

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