Aeroflot Open 2012

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 in July.

The competition is always fierce, which makes it all the more remarkable that the young Vietnamese star Le Quang Liem won Aeroflot in 2010 and again in 2011. He's back once more in 2012 to try for an unprecedented third Aeroflot title in a row!

The festival consists of three open tournaments, each of which is a nine round Swiss event. The main "A" Open tournament is for players with a rating above 2550 Elo*, and has attracted a 77-strong field. In addition a blitz tournament will also be held during the festival.

2010 and 2011 Aeroflot champion Le Quang Liem (photo: Chessbase)

The first tie-break is the number of games played with black, and the second tie-break is the average opponent rating (excluding the highest and lowest).

The time control in the "A" Open is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves, then 15 minutes to a finish with an increment of 30 seconds per move from the start.

There is a total guaranteed prize fund of €150,000 across all the competitions, with the winner of the "A" Open receiving €20,000.

All rounds in the "A" Open start at 15:00 local time (11:00 UTC). The schedule:

The top 50 players in the "A" Open:

*The Organisers can permit a player entry to a higher rated tournament than their rating allows.