Reports | February 06, 2012 19:33

Igor Lysyj wins 'Moscow Open'

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

Event RSSU Chess Cup | PGN
Dates January 28th-February 5th, 2012
Location Moscow, Russia
System 9-round Swiss, different groups
Players Top players in the Masters included Ernesto Inarkiev, Dmitry Andreikin, Bu Xiangzhi, Denis Khismatullin, Artyom Timofeev, Mateusz Bartel, Viorel Iordachescu and Igor Kurnosov
Rate of play 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes to finish the game, with an additional 30 second increment from move 1
Prize fund The total prize fund for the festival was 3,210,000 rubles or about 80,000 euros (appr. $106,500) 

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:

PGN string

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!

PGN string

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

PGN string

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

PGN string

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

Rk. Title Name FED Rtg Pts. TB1 TB2 TB3 Rp
1 GM Lysyj Igor RUS 2633 7,5 50,5 6 38,5 2847
2 GM Inarkiev Ernesto RUS 2689 7 52 5 37 2739
3 GM Kokarev Dmitry RUS 2618 7 49 6 40 2782
4   Eliseev Urii RUS 2435 7 49 5 36 2762
5 GM Maletin Pavel RUS 2575 6,5 49,5 5 33,5 2661
6 GM Lastin Alexander RUS 2538 6,5 49 4 33,5 2653
7 GM Aleksandrov Aleksej BLR 2612 6,5 48 5 34 2669
8 GM Socko Bartosz POL 2636 6,5 47,5 4 33,5 2669
9 GM Svetushkin Dmitry MDA 2598 6,5 47 5 33 2629
10 GM Dubov Daniil RUS 2498 6,5 46,5 4 35 2686
11 GM Chadaev Nikolai RUS 2556 6,5 45 4 31,5 2615
12 GM Romanov Evgeny RUS 2628 6,5 44,5 4 33 2656
13 GM Kurnosov Igor RUS 2648 6,5 42,5 5 30 2651
14 GM Deviatkin Andrei RUS 2574 6,5 40 5 27,5 2600
15 IM Goganov Aleksey RUS 2497 6 50,5 3 32,5 2679
16 GM Ni Hua CHN 2641 6 49 4 34,5 2647
17 GM Kovchan Alexander UKR 2565 6 49 4 34 2680
18 GM Khairullin Ildar RUS 2638 6 48,5 3 30,5 2612
19 GM Khismatullin Denis RUS 2664 6 48 5 29,5 2604
20 GM Andreikin Dmitry RUS 2688 6 47,5 4 32,5 2644
21 GM Bu Xiangzhi CHN 2670 6 47,5 3 31,5 2625
22 GM Gabrielian Artur RUS 2545 6 47 5 32 2613
23 IM Venkatesh M.R. IND 2499 6 47 3 32,5 2684
24 GM Volkov Sergey RUS 2633 6 46 4 31,5 2625
25 IM Demchenko Anton RUS 2578 6 45 5 29,5 2575
26 IM Tarlev Konstantin UKR 2523 6 44,5 5 29,5 2545
27 GM Bocharov Dmitry RUS 2611 6 44 4 29,5 2566
28 IM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi IND 2513 6 41,5 4 30 2580
29 GM Arun Prasad S. IND 2530 6 41 4 27 2506
30   Javakhadze Zurab GEO 2413 6 39,5 5 27,5 2535
31 GM Rakhmanov Aleksandr RUS 2593 6 38,5 4 28 2550
32 GM Lintchevski Daniil RUS 2575 6 37,5 4 28 2509
33 GM Kornev Alexei RUS 2530 5,5 50,5 3 33,5 2635
34 GM Savchenko Boris RUS 2609 5,5 50 3 34 2559
35 GM Bartel Mateusz POL 2658 5,5 49,5 3 33 2579
36 GM Shimanov Aleksandr RUS 2549 5,5 48 4 32 2621
37 GM Timofeev Artyom RUS 2659 5,5 46,5 5 30 2574
38 IM Gunina Valentina RUS 2510 5,5 46,5 5 29,5 2512
39 GM Korotylev Alexey RUS 2580 5,5 46,5 4 28,5 2523
40 GM Chernobay Artem RUS 2500 5,5 46 5 30 2519

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

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Peter Doggers's picture
Author: Peter Doggers

Founder and editor-in-chief of ChessVibes.com, Peter is responsible for most of the chess news and tournament reports. Often visiting top events, he also provides photos and videos for the site. He's a 1.e4 player himself, likes Thai food and the Stones.

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Comments

Mike Hunt's picture

Mike Hunt

1 year 4 months ago

Never even hear of this guy Igor, just shows the strength in depth in Ruski chess, amazing.

christos's picture

christos

1 year 4 months ago

In Russia, if you have a rating of 2700 you are not in the country's top ten GMs.
If you have 2600, you are an unknown.

Harry_Flashman's picture

Harry_Flashman

1 year 4 months ago

This isn't really true.. Basing on the last rating list 2700 elo points would grant you #10 place in Russia..

christos's picture

christos

1 year 4 months ago

For grandmaster Vladimir Malakhov, his 2705 rating was only good enough for 11th place in the January 2012 list (same in the current live rating list). http://ratings.fide.com/topfed.phtml?ina=1&country=RUS

columbo's picture

columbo

1 year 4 months ago

it seems that he is not An Unknown anymore ...

Thomas's picture

Thomas

1 year 4 months ago

Because he won the Moscow Open? Do you know (untitled) Vladimir Belous who won last year, or GM Konstantin Chernyshov who won in 2010?
This year, I had heard of Lysyj before, the bigger surprise should be 15-year old untitled Urii Eliseev finishing between and ahead of many GMs - at Aeroflot he wouldn't even be allowed in the A group ... .

BTW while Moscow Open may now be bigger, Aeroflot is - at least for the time being - still stronger with a comparable prize fund paid out in Euros. Inarkiev is just the ninth seed behind Tomashevsky, Caruana, Nepomniachtchi, Le Quang Liem, Vallejo, Jobava, Sasikiran and Eljanov. Who will get the Dortmund qualifier spot? Will Le Quang Liem be "threepeating" his successes from 2010 and 2011?

columbo's picture

columbo

1 year 4 months ago

well, i don't know all the 2400 and 2500 elos in this world, sorry for that ! i know it's a pity, on the other hand can you name 500 bands who sell less than 2000 Albums every year, the name of every player of every team in rugby ? the name of 500 people working for the PS party of UDF party in France ? I guess not ... So, Moscow open was a way to add a few names on my list

Thomas's picture

Thomas

1 year 4 months ago

But Lysyj has Elo 2633 - which puts him in the same league or a bit higher than Romain Edouard in France, Sipke Ernst in the Netherlands, Rainer Buhmann in Germany (Gawain Jones in England is a bit higher-rated but only on the most recent list). All these latter players are reasonably known even outside their home countries - because they are top10 in their respective country, may have played on the national team, and maybe also because their names are easier to remember ... .

Same story for Zherebukh who did very well at the World Cup and was in contention for first place in Groningen - so his victory wasn't, or shouldn't be a surprise. Robson's main comparative "advantage" may be that he is American with an American name??

However, my comment was about longer-term effects of Lysyj's result. Will he get financially attractive spots in western team competitions? Maybe. Will he get a Tata Steel B or C invitation? I doubt it ... .

columbo's picture

columbo

1 year 4 months ago

we all hope he gets some attention and invitations to Corus ! i agree with you on that, it's tuff to be Russian, especially with such a name :)

columbo's picture

columbo

1 year 4 months ago

concerning Aeroflot, i would see Caruana as the winner ... All the players from the east know themselves pretty well, it is a disadvantage ... again, sad to be russian once behind the board :)

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