Kulaots Surprises, Inspires As Aeroflot Open Winner
A day before his 43rd birthday, the Estonian grandmaster Kaido Kulaots surprised (and inspired!) by winning this year's Aeroflot Open in Moscow, Russia. He got praise from many colleagues, including the world champion Magnus Carlsen.
Last week we covered the Aeroflot Open because of a bomb threat, and the first round being cancelled because of it. Luckily this "phone terrorism" didn't get a followup. The tournament was resumed with a quicker time control so that rounds four and five could be played on the same day, and the schedule was back to normal after that.
When those five rounds were played, one participant was still on a perfect score: Krishnan Sasikiran of India. The 38-year-old GM from Chennai defeated Anton Korobov of Ukraine on Saturday evening in the second game of the day, using a quiet line against the Najdorf that he plays more often. Korobov played a typical exchange sacrifice on c3, which didn't work this time.
Sasikiran couldn't keep it going, and ended with three draws and a loss. The eventual tournament winner was the 42-year-old and 62nd-seeded Kulaots, who edged out another non-favorite on tiebreak (both reaching seven points): the 18-year-old GM Haik Martirosyan of Armenia.
The first prize of 18,000 euros and the second prize of 10,000 euros were divided according to the "Hort system," where half of the money was distributed equally, and the other half according to standings. Thus, Kulaots received 7,000 + 9,000 = 16,000 euros and Martirosyan got 7,000 + 5,000 = 12,000 euros.
Before discussing the winner, here's Martirosyan's nice final-round victory:
Kulaots, who is celebrating his 43rd birthday today, remained undefeated with four draws and five wins, four of which were scored with the black pieces. His first two wins were scored as Black in a Sicilian against two of Iran's major talents: Parham Maghsoodloo and Alireza Firouzja. Here's the latter game:
Continously alternating half-points as White and full points as Black, the Estonian GM then beat two more famous youngesters: Daniil Dubov of Russia and the top seed of the tournament, Wei Yi of China. To survive against, let alone beat Wei Yi with the black pieces, is quite an achievement.
Not sure what is more impressive:
— Stefan Kuipers (@TricksOnlyNL) February 28, 2019
- winning Aeroflot unbeaten as a 2542 with 7/9 and 2872 performance.
- beating Maghsoodloo, Firouzja, Dubov and Wei Yi with black during one tournament. #WellPlayedSir #Kulaots
In the last round Kulaots finally won a game as White, and a great one it was. The middlegame was quite spectacular, but eventually it was all decided deep down in the queen endgame.
"This is a shock! For everyone, including me," said Kulaots in an interview with Eteri Kublashvili of the Russian Chess Federation. "Were there anyone telling me before the tournament that I would win four games as Black, I would never have believed him."
The eight-time Estonian champion Kulaots has qualified for this year's Sparkassen Chess Meeting in Dortmund (July 12-23). That tournament has a special relationship with Aeroflot and always invites the winner.
Congratulations to Kulaots came in quickly, and among the senders was Magnus Carlsen.
Congrats to Kaido Kulaots for an absolutely amazing underdog victory at the Aeroflot open! 19 years ago, he shared a flat with my father and I at the Gausdal tournament, and inspired an unrated 9 year old by predicting that he would one day be rated 2650
— Magnus Carlsen (@MagnusCarlsen) February 27, 2019
Age is just a number, and rating is just a number. Congrats to Kaido Kulaots (42 y/o, 2542 FIDE) on the biggest upset tournament win I have ever seen! Winning the Aeroflot A group as the 62nd seed ahead of 6 2700+ guys is no joke.
— Sam Shankland (@GMShanky) February 27, 2019
Turning Black into Joy. The “Aeroflot Open” finale in the review of Eteri Kublashvili https://t.co/290SA7lTrQ pic.twitter.com/bUYjpiEWm9
— RCF (@ruchess_eng) February 28, 2019
The aforementioned Wei Yi grabbed the spotlight once (or rather, twice) again with some nice, sharp and tactical games as White. For example, here's his round-two game which involved a positional queen sacrifice that even the engines immediately approve of:
And here's Wei's last-round game, this time from 1.d4:
2019 Aeroflot Open | Final Standings (Top 20)
| Rk. | SNo | Fed | Title | Name | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 |
| 1 | 62 | GM | Kulaots, Kaido | 2542 | 7,0 | 5 | 2647 | |
| 2 | 28 | GM | Martirosyan, Haik | 2616 | 7,0 | 4 | 2563 | |
| 3 | 11 | GM | Sasikiran, Krishnan | 2678 | 6,5 | 4 | 2607 | |
| 4 | 3 | GM | Wang Hao | 2714 | 6,0 | 5 | 2600 | |
| 5 | 1 | GM | Wei Yi | 2733 | 6,0 | 4 | 2589 | |
| 6 | 30 | GM | Chigaev, Maksim | 2613 | 6,0 | 4 | 2586 | |
| 7 | 7 | GM | Inarkiev, Ernesto | 2692 | 6,0 | 4 | 2580 | |
| 8 | 21 | GM | Sarana, Alexey | 2630 | 6,0 | 4 | 2573 | |
| 9 | 15 | GM | Anton, Guijarro David | 2642 | 6,0 | 4 | 2557 | |
| 10 | 43 | GM | Tabatabaei, Amin | 2590 | 5,5 | 5 | 2613 | |
| 11 | 9 | GM | Korobov, Anton | 2687 | 5,5 | 5 | 2585 | |
| 12 | 47 | GM | Vaibhav, Suri | 2575 | 5,5 | 5 | 2577 | |
| 13 | 13 | GM | Sjugirov, Sanan | 2663 | 5,5 | 5 | 2558 | |
| 14 | 23 | GM | Paravyan, David | 2627 | 5,5 | 5 | 2536 | |
| 15 | 60 | GM | Hakobyan, Aram | 2545 | 5,5 | 5 | 2536 | |
| 16 | 25 | GM | Khismatullin, Denis | 2621 | 5,5 | 5 | 2526 | |
| 17 | 35 | GM | Deac, Bogdan-Daniel | 2603 | 5,5 | 4 | 2647 | |
| 18 | 32 | GM | Lupulescu, Constantin | 2610 | 5,5 | 4 | 2640 | |
| 19 | 61 | IM | Sychev, Klementy | 2545 | 5,5 | 4 | 2609 | |
| 20 | 29 | GM | Zhou Jianchao | 2615 | 5,5 | 4 | 2601 |
(Full final standing here.)
Games via TWIC.
Hearty Congratulations to Aditya Mittal (🇮🇳 2454) on scoring his third IM norm on the trot at Aeroflot Open 🇷🇺 to become India's latest International Master!
— Chess.com - India (@chesscom_in) February 27, 2019
13 year old Aditya was rated 2215 in October 2018 with no norms and in 4 months, He is an IM with a live rating of 2457. pic.twitter.com/z4YgeRpOQM
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