Just saw the first report on Chessbase of the Aeroflot Open and what caught my eye was the time control - 100 minutes for 40 moves then 50 minutes for the next 20, then 15 minutes plus 30 seconds a move til the end. Finally, a tournament where good games have a chance of not being destroyed by time trouble after the first time control! I know its a little tougher to get 40 moves in than 120/40, but the logic is that so many opening systems are known down to move 15 at least that they can bang out those moves in 25 minutes say, and still have 3 minutes a move for the rest of the game.

Here Lajos Portisch suggests an even shorter first time control due to the openings being so well known.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=7890

"Why not shorten the time of the first time control to one hour for thirty moves?"

On the other hand you get this.

http://vietnamchess.com.vn/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=513%3Ahdbankch2012&catid=34%3Ainternational2012&lang=en

"The time control is 90 minutes for the whole game with an addition of 30 seconds per move starting from the first move."

 What I also like is the entry fee for a sub 2000 player is 200 dollars..for the privilege of getting your ass handed to you twice a day in horrible time scrambles..nice

Shorter time controls almost force players to "bang out" theory already.  All current controls are too fast for serious games - Capablanca, Lasker, and Alekhine played 30/2, 15/1 thereafter:  four minutes per move.  If you look at the first 20 moves of the games of Karpov, Kasparov, Ivanchuk, and Carlsen against strong opposition, you will find they and other strong players frequently get into time trouble despite the existence of theory.

Faster chess is fun, but not better quality.

 Agreed, unfortunately they have to play the games out to a finish somehow at one sitting because the adjournments would be decided by Houdini but you also can't expect players to sit there for nine hours or something, its a difficult situation.