Aeroflot 09: solid finish for Indians (1)
The 13th edition of the Aeroflot Open 2016 is being held in Moscow, Russia from the 29th of February to 10th of March 2016. The tournament ended in a close finish at the top with both Boris Gelfand and Evgeny Najer scoring 6.5/9, with the latter taking first place on tiebreak. The Indians were playing in sizable numbers and our best performer was GM Krishnan Sasikiran who scored 5.5/9. An illustrated report of Group A and Aeroflot Blitz.
Aeroflot 09: strong finish for Indians (1)
Photos by Amruta Mokal
A bunch of your friends would visit Moscow and you would ask them how do you like the city. You will receive an assortment of reactions. The Russian capital is known to be the capital of the chess world, with God knows how many grandmasters residing in this one city alone.
The 13th edition of the Aeroflot Open 2016 is being held in Moscow, Russia from the 29th of February to 10th of March 2016. The official hotel of the event is Hotel Cosmos and the playing venue is also located at the same place. There are three tournaments that are simultaneously taking place: The A Group (2550 and above), that has only 83 players of which 09 are Indians; the B Group (2300 and above), and the C Group (below 2300).
The tournament ended in a close finish at the top with both Boris Gelfand and Evgeny Najer scoring 6.5/9, with the latter taking first place on tiebreak. The Indians were playing in sizable numbers. In fact, in the A and B groups, the number of Indians in competition was second only the Russians, the host of the event.
In this first part of our report, we bring you highlights of the A group and the Aeroflot Blitz tournament:
In the final round, he was white against Russian GM Alexander Motylev (2655). He is a pawn ahead and looks clearly better. How will you continue as White here?
Chithambaram (2506) - Motylev (2655)
[Site "Moscow"]
[Date "2016.03.09"]
[Round "9.16"]
[White "Aravindh, Chithambaram Vr"]
[Black "Motylev, Alexander"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C49"]
[WhiteElo "2506"]
[BlackElo "2655"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "4r1k1/p7/3pP2p/3Pnrp1/5p2/7P/P4PPB/4RRK1 w - - 0 27"]
[PlyCount "26"]
[EventDate "2016.03.01"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "RUS"]
[SourceDate "2003.06.08"]
32. Rd4 Nb6 33. Rxf4 Rxf4 34. Bxf4 $16) 27... Nd3 28. Rb5 a6 29. Ra5 Rxe6 {
winning back the pawn.} 30. g3 Re2 31. Rxa6 Rxd5 32. a4 f3 33. g4 Nxf2 $1 {
A sad end for Aravindh.} 34. Rxd6 (34. Rxf2 Rd1+ 35. Rf1 Rg2+ 36. Kh1 Rxf1+ 37.
Bg1 Rfxg1#) 34... Nxh3+ 35. Kh1 Nf2+ 36. Kg1 Rxd6 37. Bxd6 Ne4 38. Bc7 Rg2+ 39.
Kh1 Nf2+ 0-
Overview of Indian performance in Group A:
Aeroflot Blitz 2016
The Aeroflot Blitz tournament was held after the main tournaments ended and most of the Indian players participated. The tournament was unique -- the players played each other twice with alternate colours in each round! Our best performer, by a mile, was expectedly GM Krishnan Sasikiran.
Our official photographer Amruta Mokal recorded the final round game of Sasi against Boris Gelfand:
Sasi scored 12.0/18 to finish at the 14th place at the Aeroflot Blitz Tournament.
Final Ranking:
| Place | No. | Title | Name | Fed. | FIDE | Local | R 1 | R 2 | R 3 | R 4 | R 5 | R 6 | R 7 | R 8 | R 9 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | GM | Ding, Liren | CHN | B 2688 | 1000 |
161b
2,0
|
53w
2,0
|
73b
2,0
|
17w
1,5
|
2b
1,0
|
9b
2,0
|
3w
1,5
|
4w
1,0
|
19b
2,0
|
15.0 |
| 2 | 2 | GM | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | RUS | B 2813 | 2704 |
74b
2,0
|
52w
1,5
|
23b
1,5
|
29w
2,0
|
1w
1,0
|
26b
2,0
|
13b
1,5
|
22w
1,5
|
12w
1,5
|
14.5 |
| 3 | 3 | GM | Petrosian, Tigran L. | ARM | B 2729 | 2607 |
65w
2,0
|
57b
1,5
|
24w
1,5
|
59b
2,0
|
14w
2,0
|
12b
1,0
|
1b
0,5
|
6w
1,0
|
13b
1,5
|
13.0 |
| 4 | 4 | GM | Gelfand, Boris | ISR | B 2767 | 2735 |
94w
2,0
|
58b
1,5
|
39w
1,5
|
22b
1,0
|
10w
2,0
|
23b
1,5
|
12w
1,0
|
1b
1,0
|
14w
1,5
|
13.0 |
| 5 | 5 | GM | Dubov, Daniil | RUS | B 2713 | 2634 |
75b
1,0
|
125w
2,0
|
98b
1,5
|
30w
1,5
|
24b
1,5
|
6w
1,0
|
18b
1,0
|
27w
1,5
|
29b
2,0
|
13.0 |
| 6 | 6 | GM | Swiercz, Dariusz | POL | B 2648 | 2665 |
138w
1,5
|
72b
1,0
|
57w
1,0
|
107b
2,0
|
54w
2,0
|
5b
1,0
|
23w
2,0
|
3b
1,0
|
15w
1,5
|
13.0 |
| 7 | 7 | GM | Kamsky, Gata | USA | B 2706 | 2673 |
105b
2,0
|
56w
1,5
|
77b
1,0
|
52w
0,0
|
108b
2,0
|
24w
1,0
|
98b
1,5
|
83w
2,0
|
25b
2,0
|
13.0 |
| 8 | 8 | GM | Mamedov, Rauf | AZE | B 2810 | 1000 |
107w
2,0
|
64b
1,0
|
84w
1,0
|
54b
0,0
|
134w
2,0
|
71b
1,5
|
73w
1,5
|
59b
2,0
|
22b
2,0
|
13.0 |
| 9 | 9 | GM | Jumabayev, Rinat | KAZ | B 2619 | 2607 |
104b
2,0
|
97w
2,0
|
15w
1,5
|
12b
1,0
|
41b
2,0
|
1w
0,0
|
19b
1,0
|
39w
2,0
|
10w
1,0
|
12.5 |
| 10 | 10 | GM | Vallejo Pons, Francisco | ESP | B 2666 | 2677 |
127b
2,0
|
32w
1,0
|
126b
2,0
|
83w
1,0
|
4b
0,0
|
53w
2,0
|
44b
1,5
|
42w
2,0
|
9b
1,0
|
12.5 |
| 11 | 11 | GM | Safarli, Eltaj | AZE | B 2677 | 2663 |
95w
2,0
|
77b
0,5
|
71w
1,0
|
72b
1,5
|
33w
2,0
|
44b
1,0
|
26w
1,0
|
43b
1,5
|
46w
2,0
|
12.5 |
| 12 | 12 | GM | Ponomariov, Ruslan | UKR | B 2730 | 1000 |
38b
2,0
|
33w
2,0
|
30b
1,5
|
9w
1,0
|
52b
2,0
|
3w
1,0
|
4b
1,0
|
13w
1,0
|
2b
0,5
|
12.0 |
| 13 | 13 | GM | Matlakov, Maxim | RUS | B 2662 | 2682 |
136w
1,0
|
91b
2,0
|
92w
2,0
|
40b
2,0
|
26w
1,0
|
21b
2,0
|
2w
0,5
|
12b
1,0
|
3w
0,5
|
12.0 |
| 14 | 14 | GM | Sasikiran, Krishnan | IND | B 2661 | 1000 |
115b
2,0
|
96w
2,0
|
40b
1,0
|
48w
2,0
|
3b
0,0
|
35w
2,0
|
27b
1,5
|
29w
1,0
|
4b
0,5
|
12.0 |
| 15 | 15 | GM | Artemiev, Vladislav | RUS | B 2724 | 2674 |
102b
2,0
|
87w
2,0
|
9b
0,5
|
81w
1,5
|
25b
1,0
|
27b
0,5
|
58w
2,0
|
24w
2,0
|
6b
0,5
|
12.0 |
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