The 11th Aeroflot Open will take place from 6-17 February 2012 in the Hotel Cosmos, Moscow.

The Aeroflot Open has grown into one of the biggest and strongest Open tournaments in the world, and once again in 2012 the winner will earn an invitation to compete at the Dortmund Super-Tournament.

The competition is always fierce, which makes it all the more remarkable that the young Vietnamese star Le Quang Liem (pictured) won Aeroflot in 2010 and again in 2011.

Registration is open now! The information below is from the official website.

Information and Regulations of the International Chess Open Festival "AEROFLOT OPEN 2012" and the Blitz Tournament.

General information of the festival:

The International Chess Festival "Aeroflot Open 2012" will be held in Moscow from 6 February (the date of arrival) to 17 February 2012 (the date of departure).

The Aeroflot Open Chess Festival, which is popular throughout the world, will be held in February 2012 for the eleventh time running. This major event is open to chess players of most varied qualification: from unrated to having a very high rating. As before, the festival is held “under the wings” of our leading air company – Aeroflot – Russian airlines. For the first time the festival will be held in the hotel “Cosmos”, which is one of the largest in Moscow ( over 1700 rooms). The hotel is located in one of the most beautiful and environmentally pure Moscow districts within 20-minutes travelling from Red Square and only 200-m walking from the nearest subway station. This time the festival has the guaranteed prize fund amounting to EUR 150 000 (taking into account the prizes for the Blitz Tournament).

Three Open Tournaments (A, B and C) are made up according to the rating of the participants. Naturally, the greatest interest is aroused by A tournament, requiring from a participant a rating above 2550 and usually boasting a number of extra class players.

In addition to the Open Tournaments, a Blitz Tournament will be held within the festival.

The official accommodation for the participants and also the venue of the Tournament will be at the “Cosmos” hotel.

The Organizers of the Festival are the "Aeroflot-Russian Airlines", the Association of Chess Federations and the Russian Chess Federation.

Type of Chess Festival:

The festival consists of three open tournaments, each of which is a nine round Swiss event.

The Tournaments and Prize Fund:

The total prize fund of the three tournaments is EUR 125 000.

Tournament A:
for chessplayers with a FIDE rating higher than 2549.
Total prize fund Group A: EUR 67 000

The winner of the A tournament will be entitled to participate in the round-robin Super Tournament in Dortmund in the second half of July 2012.

Tournament B:
for chessplayers with a FIDE rating less than 2550, but higher than 2299.
Total prize fund Group B: EUR 37500

Tournament C:
for chessplayers with a FIDE rating lower than 2300 or without rating.
Total prize fund Group C: EUR 18000

In exceptional cases the Organising Committee has the right to permit a chessplayer to play in a higher rated tournament than his/her FIDE rating indicates.

In case of a tie of 2 or more participants, the prizes are divided according to the Hort system.

The number of prizes in each tournament does not exceed that indicated above in the tables.

Tiebreak systems:

For tournament A and B:

1. The number of games played with Black. Byes and forfeited games will be considered as games played with White.
2. The average of the opponents' ratings minus the highest and the lowest rating.

For Tournament C:

1. The Buchholz score

Explication of the Hort System for the prize distribution.

In cases of a tie of two or more participants will be divided according to the Hort system. The following example will explain this system.

Suppose 4 players share the same place. The four prizes are as follows:1st EUR 10,000, 2nd EUR 8,000, 3rd EUR 6,000, 4th EUR 4,000.

We have to split the amount of EUR 28,000. We split it into two equal parts of EUR 14,000 each.

The first part will be split equally. Each of the players receives EUR 3,500.

The second part will be split according to the ranking after tiebreak.

#1 receives 3,500 + 5,000 = 8,500
#2 receives 3,500 + 4,000 = 7,500
#3 receives 3,500 + 3,000 = 6,500
#4 receives 3,500 + 2,000 = 5,500

Special Prizes:

There will also be special prizes for the best performance among seniors, women and juniors in all tournaments amounting to EUR 2500 in total.

There will also be a prize for the best result shown by an unrated player in section C.

Only one prize can be awarded to a player (the highest one).

The exact distribution of the special prizes will be announced after the second round of the tournament, when the numbers of seniors, women and juniors and the ratings of these players are known.

Attention is called to the fact that for such prizes to be awarded there should be at least 3 players in each of the above categories.

Seniors, Juniors and Women:

A player will be considered a Senior when he was born before 01-01-1952.

A player will be considered a Junior when he was born after 31-12-1993.

Girls born after 31-12-1993 will be considered as Women players.

Time control:

Tournament A and B:100 minutes for the first 40 moves, 50 minutes for the next 20 moves and 15 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from the first.

Tournament C: 90 minutes for the whole game with an increment of 30 seconds per move from move 1.

The participants should keep the record of moves till the end of the game.

The Festival Schedule: