Igor Lysyj wins 'Moscow Open'

Igor Lysyj won the top group of the International RSSU Chess Cup on Sunday in Moscow, Russia. The festival, formerly known as the Moscow Open, had more than 1400 participants from 26 countries, among them approximately 95 GMs and 70 IMs.

Winner in Moscow: Igor Lysyj | Photo courtesy of the official website, more here

Traditionally in February two big open tournaments are held in Moscow: first the Moscow Open and then the Aeroflot Open. In recent years the former has outgrown the latter and generally speaking, the future of "Aeroflot", which starts tomorrow, seems less secure. The stature of the 'Moscow Open' (now officially called RSSU Chess Cup) was underlined by the presence at the opening ceremony of both FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and former World Champion Anatoly Karpov, now a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

The huge festival was devided over several groups, given below. Besides those, there was also the fifth World Chess Problem Solving Cup and even a Japan chess (shogi) tournament.

A. National Cup stage among men
B. National Cup stage among women
C. RSSU Amateur Chess Cup
D. RSSU Student Grandmaster Cup (men)
E. RSSU Student Grandmaster Cup (women)
F. RSSU Student Cup
G. RSSU School Champions Cup
H. RSSU School Leavers Cup

Normally we don't pay attention to the lower groups of open tournaments, but in this case some of these groups were quite strong. The B group was won by IM Marina Romanko (Russia), ahead of a group of six which included Ekatarina Atalik (Turkey), the wife of the famous GM. In the D group, a 10-player round robin especially for students, Yaroslav Zherebukh (Ukraine) finished first, ahead of well-known players like Dariusz Swiercz (Poland), Ray Robson (USA) and Maxim Matlakov (Russia). A fragment from the winner:

[Event "Moscow Open 2012"]
[Site "Moscow"]
[Date "2012.03.02"]
[Round "7.2"]
[White "Zherebukh Yaroslav"]
[Black "Robson Ray"]
[Result "1-0"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "4k2r/3b1pp1/1R2p2p/p1rpPn1P/8/q1PB3R/3BQPP1/5K2 b k - 0 21"]
[PlyCount "30"]

21... O-O $6 (21... Rc8 {was much safer.}) 22. g4 $1 Ne7 23. g5 {White is
probably already winning here!} Kh8 24. gxh6 gxh6 25. Qf3 Ng8 26. Bxh6 $5 ({
The simple} 26. Rg3 {was also killing.}) 26... Rxc3 27. Bxf8 Qxf8 28. h6 f5 29.
exf6 e5 30. Rg3 ({Or} 30. f7 Bxh3+ 31. Ke2 $18) 30... e4 31. Qf4 Rxd3 32. Rb8
Bc8 33. h7 Kxh7 34. Rxc8 Qxf6 35. Rc7+ Kh8 36. Rxg8+ 1-0

The A group was of course the strongest, with Ernesto Inarkiev, Dmitry Andreikin, Bu Xiangzhi, Denis Khismatullin, Artyom Timofeev, Mateusz Bartel, Viorel Iordachescu and Igor Kurnosov topping the starting list. However, none of these names managed to win. Sole victory went to 25-year-old grandmaster Igor Lysyj, the 12th seeded player. Let's look at a few games by the winner.

In the 5th round, Lysyj found a new opening against which you can try running with your h-pawn: the Queen's Indian!

[Event "Moscow Open 2012"]
[Site "Moscow"]
[Date "2012.02.01"]
[Round "5.11"]
[White "Lysyj Igor"]
[Black "Iordachescu Viorel"]
[Result "1-0"]
[PlyCount "81"]
[EventDate "2012.??.??"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. a3 Ba6 5. Qc2 c5 6. d5 exd5 7. cxd5 d6 8. Nc3
g6 9. Bf4 Bg7 10. h4 b5 11. e3 O-O 12. h5 b4 13. axb4 Bxf1 14. Kxf1 cxb4 15.
Nb5 Nbd7 16. hxg6 hxg6 17. Bxd6 Qb6 18. Qc6 Rfc8 19. Nc7 Rab8 20. Ra6 Qb7 21.
Rh4 Nb6 22. Rxb4 Rxc7 23. Raxb6 axb6 24. Qxc7 Qa6+ 25. Kg1 Rc8 26. Ra4 Rxc7 27.
Rxa6 Rc8 28. Rxb6 Nxd5 29. Rb5 Nf6 30. Bb4 Ne4 31. Be1 Rc1 32. Kf1 Rb1 33. Nd4
f5 34. Ke2 Nd6 35. Rb6 Bxd4 36. exd4 Nc4 37. Rxg6+ Kf7 38. Rc6 Rxb2+ 39. Kd3
Nb6 40. Bc3 Rb1 41. Rc5 1-0

Against Dmitry Andreikin he went for an interesting ending with unbalanced material.

[Event "Moscow Open 2012"]
[Site "Moscow"]
[Date "2012.02.03"]
[Round "7.14"]
[White "Andreikin Dmitry"]
[Black "Lysyj Igor"]
[Result "0-1"]
[PlyCount "110"]
[EventDate "2012.??.??"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nxc6 bxc6 6. e5 Qe7 7. Qe2 Nd5 8.
c4 Ba6 9. b3 g6 10. Ba3 Nb4 11. Bb2 Bg7 12. a3 Nd5 13. g3 O-O 14. Bg2 Rae8 15.
O-O Bxe5 16. Qxe5 Qxe5 17. Bxe5 Rxe5 18. cxd5 Bxf1 19. Kxf1 cxd5 20. Nd2 c6 21.
Rc1 Ra8 22. Bh3 f5 23. g4 fxg4 24. Bxg4 Re7 25. b4 a5 26. b5 cxb5 27. Rc5 Rb8
28. Be2 b4 29. a4 b3 30. Bb5 b2 31. Rc3 Re4 32. Rb3 Rh4 33. Ke2 Kf7 34. Kd3
Rxh2 35. Rxb2 Rxf2 36. Rc2 h5 37. Rc7 Ke6 38. Nb3 Rf3+ 39. Kc2 Ke5 40. Nxa5 h4
41. Rxd7 Rh8 42. Nc6+ Kf4 43. Ne7 Rg3 44. Bc6 h3 45. Rxd5 h2 46. Rd1 Rh7 47.
Nd5+ Kg5 48. Rh1 Rg1 49. Nc3 Kg4 50. Kd2 g5 51. Nb5 Kg3 52. Nc3 Rxh1 53. Bxh1
Kf2 54. Ne4+ Kg1 55. Nxg5 Kxh1 0-1

In the final round Lysyj was eventually rewarded for avoiding several move repetitions earlier in the game.

[Event "Moscow Open 2012"]
[Site "Moscow"]
[Date "2012.02.05"]
[Round "9.11"]
[White "Lysyj Igor"]
[Black "Kokarev Dmitry "]
[Result "1-0"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "2n2bk1/3bq3/3p2p1/2pP1pP1/2P2B1P/3B1NK1/8/1Q6 w - - 0 78"]
[PlyCount "25"]
[EventDate "2012.??.??"]

78. h5 $1 gxh5 79. Nh4 Bg7 80. Nxf5 Bxf5 81. Bxf5 Be5 82. Be6+ Kg7 83. Bxe5+
dxe5 84. Bxc8 Qxg5+ 85. Kf3 Qf4+ 86. Ke2 Qxc4+ 87. Qd3 Qxd3+ 88. Kxd3 Kf6 89.
Bh3 Ke7 90. Bg2 1-0

RSSU Chess Cup | A. National Cup (men) | Final standings (top 40)

Top seed Ernesto Inarkiev finished shared 2nd 

Bu Xiangzhi (China), shared 15th with 6/9...

...just like his friend and co-student in Shanghai, Ni Hua

Bartosz Socko (Poland), shared 5th with 6.5 points

7th seeded Viorel Iordachescu (Moldavia) scored a disappointing 5/9

The many prizes to be awarded at the closing ceremony...

...where we recognize GM Evgeny Sveshnikov (Latvia), next to WGM Marina Manakova (Serbia)

2-1-3: Ernesto Inarkiev, Igor Lysyj and Dmitry Kokarev

The winner being interviewed after the prize giving