Fedoseev Wins Aeroflot, Qualifies For Dortmund
Vladimir Fedoseev won the strong Aeroflot Open tournament on Wednesday. The 22-year-old Russian grandmaster was the only player to finish on 7/9, and qualified for the Dortmund super-tournament later this year.
The annual Aeroflot Open in Moscow, sponsored by the country's major airline, had its first edition in 2002. It quickly grew into one of the strongest open tournaments of the year.
In last week of February (Feb 21-March 2) the 15th edition was held in hotel Kosmos in the Ostankinsky District of northern Moscow. Players from 28 different federations played in the top group, including 73 grandmasters and 21 international masters.
The top seeds were GMs Yu Yangyi (CHN, 2738), Nikita Vitiugov (RUS, 2724), Ernesto Inarkiev (RUS, 2723), Baadur Jobava (GEO, 2701), and Maxim Matlakov (RUS, 2701) but e.g. Ilia Smirin (2670), Gata Kamsky (USA, 2669), Helgi Olafsson (ISL, 2540) and IM Praggnanandhaa R (IND, 2455) were there as well.
The playing hall in hotel Kosmos during the blitz.
It was 18th-seeded GM Vladimir Fedoseev who managed to finish in clear first place. Not only did he win the €18,000 first prize, but also a ticket to the 2017 Sparkassen Chess Meeting in Dortmund.
His win in the penultimate round was a rather quick one, after which a draw in the final round with Nikita Vitiugov sufficed.
We know one participant of this year's Dortmund tournament!
2006 winner and fan favorite Baadur Jobava played a nice game in round six against Mikhail Kobalia. Lot of small tactical motifs!
Baadur Jobava.
Gata Kamsky finished in the group of players on 6/9. He beat the Norwegian GM Aryan Tari in the penultimate round using the Bird (or Leningrad Dutch with reversed colors):
Gata Kamsky.
Last year's winner Evgeniy Najer tied for second place after winning an important game in the penultimate round against one of his compatriots:
2017 Aeroflot Open | Group A, Final Standings (Top 20)
| Rk. | SNo | Fed | Title | Name | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | Rp |
| 1 | 18 | GM | Fedoseev Vladimir | 2658 | 7 | 5 | 2604 | 2823 | |
| 2 | 17 | GM | Najer Evgeniy | 2659 | 6,5 | 4 | 2660 | 2823 | |
| 3 | 41 | GM | Kovalev Vladislav | 2598 | 6,5 | 4 | 2638 | 2791 | |
| 4 | 2 | GM | Vitiugov Nikita | 2724 | 6,5 | 4 | 2626 | 2797 | |
| 5 | 4 | GM | Jobava Baadur | 2701 | 6 | 5 | 2619 | 2746 | |
| 6 | 14 | GM | Kamsky Gata | 2669 | 6 | 5 | 2592 | 2716 | |
| 7 | 6 | GM | Korobov Anton | 2691 | 6 | 5 | 2583 | 2700 | |
| 8 | 3 | GM | Inarkiev Ernesto | 2723 | 6 | 4 | 2636 | 2764 | |
| 9 | 91 | IM | Firouzja Alireza | 2465 | 6 | 4 | 2625 | 2746 | |
| 10 | 1 | GM | Yu Yangyi | 2738 | 6 | 4 | 2615 | 2735 | |
| 11 | 19 | GM | Artemiev Vladislav | 2655 | 6 | 4 | 2609 | 2740 | |
| 12 | 16 | GM | Dubov Daniil | 2661 | 5,5 | 5 | 2568 | 2646 | |
| 13 | 77 | GM | Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan | 2524 | 5,5 | 4 | 2647 | 2732 | |
| 14 | 5 | GM | Matlakov Maxim | 2701 | 5,5 | 4 | 2640 | 2716 | |
| 15 | 21 | GM | Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo | 2652 | 5,5 | 4 | 2631 | 2707 | |
| 16 | 29 | GM | Khismatullin Denis | 2639 | 5,5 | 4 | 2620 | 2700 | |
| 17 | 7 | GM | Mamedov Rauf | 2688 | 5,5 | 4 | 2612 | 2692 | |
| 18 | 39 | GM | Bosiocic Marin | 2602 | 5,5 | 4 | 2603 | 2676 | |
| 19 | 23 | GM | Berkes Ferenc | 2648 | 5,5 | 4 | 2587 | 2672 | |
| 20 | 12 | GM | Vidit Santosh Gujrathi | 2673 | 5,5 | 4 | 2576 | 2641 |
(Full final standings here.)
Traditionally, the day after the tournament there's also a blitz event. This was very strong as well, if only because world championship (and 2017 Chess.com Speed Chess Championship) contender Sergey Karjakin decided to come by and play!
One fan wanted to be as close to Karjakin as possible.
It wasn't a successful day for him, though. On the contrary. In this nine-round Swiss with double rounds (two games against each opponent), he scored 11/18 and tied for 28th place. Karjakin lost 92.4(!) blitz Elo points along the way.
The tournament was convincingly won by Anton Korobov (15.5/18) ahead of GMs Rauf Mamedov and Daniil Dubov.
2017 Aeroflot Blitz | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Place | Fed | Title | Name | Fed. | FIDE | Total | Bch. |
| 1 | GM | Korobov, Anton | B 2734 | 15.5 | 100 | ||
| 2 | GM | Mamedov, Rauf | B 2765 | 13.5 | 107 | ||
| 3 | GM | Dubov, Daniil | B 2804 | 13 | 96 | ||
| 4 | GM | Ramirez, Alejandro | B 2657 | 13 | 92.5 | ||
| 5 | GM | Artemiev, Vladislav | B 2785 | 13 | 88 | ||
| 6 | GM | Yu, Yangyi | B 2720 | 12.5 | 106 | ||
| 7 | GM | Vitiugov, Nikita | B 2670 | 12.5 | 98 | ||
| 8 | GM | Jobava, Baadur | B 2758 | 12.5 | 96 | ||
| 9 | GM | Kamsky, Gata | B 2675 | 12.5 | 95.5 | ||
| 10 | GM | Khismatullin, Denis | B 2633 | 12.5 | 94.5 | ||
| 11 | GM | Gunina, Valentina | B 2595 | 12.5 | 88 | ||
| 12 | GM | Maghsoodloo, Parham | B 2539 | 12 | 96.5 | ||
| 13 | GM | Movsesian, Sergei | B 2641 | 12 | 94.5 | ||
| 14 | GM | Bindrich, Falko | B 2564 | 12 | 93 | ||
| 15 | GM | Lysyj, Igor | B 2585 | 12 | 89.5 | ||
| 16 | GM | Fedoseev, Vladimir | B 2651 | 12 | 87.5 | ||
| 17 | GM | Berkes, Ferenc | B 2701 | 12 | 83 | ||
| 18 | FM | Esipenko, Andrey | B 2489 | 11.5 | 101.5 | ||
| 19 | GM | Cordova, Emilio | B 2631 | 11.5 | 101 | ||
| 20 | GM | Indjic, Aleksandar | B 2534 | 11.5 | 91.5 |
(Full final standings here.)
Anton Korobov was in great shape today.
Alejandro Ramirez played well, but two very quick draws vs Mamedov (as in: just a few moves in both games) in the final round got him in fourth place.
Daniil Dubov is an excellent blitz player as well.
Alexander Morozevich missed the first round and couldn't fight himself to the top boards.
Vladimir Potkin came straight from Sharjah, where he worked with Ian Nepomniachtchi—who decided to spend some time in Dubai with his girlfriend after the Grand Prix.
Karjakin sitting next to Valentina Gunina, who played rather well despite having to move with her left hand (as she injured her other wrist recently.)
The top boards just before the start of the final round.
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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