Tonight is the opening, and tomorrow the first round will be played: one of the biggest and probably the strongest open tournament of the calendar has begun.
The 6th Aeroflot Open is being held from 13 till 23 February in Moscow. The tournament venue is hotel "Gamma-Delta" belonging to the Tourist Complex "Ismailovo". The main sponsor is the national airline company Aeroflot (you know, the one Kasparov doesn't fly with anymore).The festival contains four Swiss groups that play nine rounds, with rating sections 2200-2399, 2400-2549 and even 2550-. The total prize fund is 200,000 USD of which half (!) will be distributed among the players of the "A1" tournament. The first prize is an amazing 30,000 USD and a ticket to the super tournament of Dortmund, later this year. Last year, Evgeny Alekseev was the
lucky one.
The rounds will be played at 15:00 hrs local time (GMT +3, or 13:00 CET), except for the last round which starts at 11:00 hrs. The time control is 2 hours for 40 moves, then 1 hour for 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus 30 seconds increment to end the game. As always, the main arbiter will be Geurt Gijssen. I talked to Geurt, who
broke a leg at the Tal Memorial, but he's doing all right now.The strongest players in Moscow are Akopian (2700), Volokitin (2674), Timofeev (2664), Bologan (2663), Amonatov (2649), Motylev (2644), Jobava (2643), Sutovsky (2642), Khalifman (2638), and Vachier-Lagrave (2637). We'll keep you posted for a definite list. Needless to say, we'll report on the Aeroflot Open.Links:
Tonight is the opening, and tomorrow the first round will be played: one of the biggest and probably the strongest open tournament of the calendar has begun.
The 6th Aeroflot Open is being held from 13 till 23 February in Moscow. The tournament venue is hotel "Gamma-Delta" belonging to the Tourist Complex "Ismailovo". The main sponsor is the national airline company Aeroflot (you know, the one Kasparov doesn't fly with anymore).The festival contains four Swiss groups that play nine rounds, with rating sections 2200-2399, 2400-2549 and even 2550-. The total prize fund is 200,000 USD of which half (!) will be distributed among the players of the "A1" tournament. The first prize is an amazing 30,000 USD and a ticket to the super tournament of Dortmund, later this year. Last year, Evgeny Alekseev was the lucky one.
The rounds will be played at 15:00 hrs local time (GMT +3, or 13:00 CET), except for the last round which starts at 11:00 hrs. The time control is 2 hours for 40 moves, then 1 hour for 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus 30 seconds increment to end the game. As always, the main arbiter will be Geurt Gijssen. I talked to Geurt, who broke a leg at the Tal Memorial, but he's doing all right now.The strongest players in Moscow are Akopian (2700), Volokitin (2674), Timofeev (2664), Bologan (2663), Amonatov (2649), Motylev (2644), Jobava (2643), Sutovsky (2642), Khalifman (2638), and Vachier-Lagrave (2637). We'll keep you posted for a definite list. Needless to say, we'll report on the Aeroflot Open.Links:
