Reports | February 10, 2012 10:11

Aeroflot Open under way with Caruana in shared lead

Aeroflot Open under way with Caruana in shared lead

Fabiano Caruana of Italy is in shared lead with seven more grandmasters at the Aeroflot Open in Moscow, Russia. The group scored 2.5 points out of 3 games. Caruana is now 7th in the live ratings.

The playing hall in Moscow | Photo © Russian Chess Federation

Event Aeroflot Open | PGN via TWIC
Dates February 7th-15th, 2012 with a blitz tournament on February 16th, 2012
Location Moscow, Russia
System 9-round Swiss, different groups
Players Top players in the A group include  Evgeny Tomashevsky, Fabiano Caruana, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Le Quang Liem, Francisco Vallejo, Baadur Jobava,Krishnan Sasikiran and Pavel Eljanov
Rate of play in group A 100 minutes for 40 moves plus 50 minutes for 20 moves plus 15 minutes to finish the game, with an additional 30 second increment from move 1
Prize fund The total prize fund is 122,500 euro (or 150,000 euro if the blitz tournament afterwards is included) with a first priz in the A group of 20,000 euro. 
Tiebreaks For tournaments A and B: the number of games played with Black. Byes and forfeited games will be considered as games played with White. Then the average of the opponents' ratings minus the highest and the lowest rating. For tournament C: the Buchholz score

The 11th edition of the Aeroflot Open, the annual tournament in Moscow sponsored by the Russian airline, is being held in a new venue this year: Hotel Kosmos. In the early years the famous Hotel Rossiya hosted the event, but this 3,200-room building was torn down in 2006. In 2007 the tournament moved from the city centre to the Izmailovo Complex in East-Moscow, which was built for the 1980 Olympics. Hotel Kosmos is located in the north of the city, and is advertised at the official website as follows:

The hotel is located in one of the most beautiful and environmentally pure Moscow districts within 20-minutes travelling from Red Square and only 200-m walking from the nearest subway station.

However, according to Mikhail Golubev in Chess Today #4109, participants have complained about cold rooms, while journalists are looking in vain for a press room.

As always, the top group has the high rating threshold of 2550. The first prize is impressive as always: 20,000 euro. The B group is for players between 2300 and 2549 (first prize 10,000 euro) and there's also a C group for players below 2300 (first prize 3,500 euro).

In this first report we'll focus on the A group, where the top players are Evgeny Tomashevsky, Fabiano Caruana, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Le Quang Liem, Francisco Vallejo, Baadur Jobava,Krishnan Sasikiran and Pavel Eljanov. Unfortunately Ernesto Inarkiev, who played in the Moscow Open like many others, had to withdraw at the last minute.

As far as we know, the A tournament still functions as a qualifier for the Sparkassen Chess Meeting in July in Dortmund, Germany. In the last two editions, Le Quang Liem managed to claim this spot. The Vietnamese GM plays again, and started with a win followed by two draws.

Most chess fans will be watching Fabiano Caruana, who has made such steady progress in recent years. On the January FIDE rating list the Italian occupies the 17th spot at 2736, but after Reggio Emilia, Wijk aan Zee and now a 2.5/3 start at the Aeroflot Open, he jumped to 7th (!) place, gaining 32.3 rating points. Here's his third-round win:

PGN string

We'll give a few more nice games for replay. In the first round, Baadur Jobava showed that when White controls the centre, he doesn't need to castle against the Grünfeld, but a brutal attack instead will do:

PGN string

Dmitry Andreikin crushed Alexander Ipatov, a young Bulgarian GM who recently switched federations from Spain to Turkey.

PGN string

Baskaran Adhiban played in, Tata Steel 'C', and will face stronger opponents this time. He started with a spectacular win:

PGN string

And here's a nice finish of Ivan Sokolov's first round win:

PGN string

Here's another example of one of those brutal h2--h4-h5 attacks, this time performed by Russian GM Denis Khismatullin in the second round.

PGN string

A small puzzle to finish with, from the game Aleksandrov-Gundavaa, round 3.

PGN string

Can Black solve his isolated queen's pawn with 22...d4 here? Solution below the article.

Aeroflot Open 2012 | Group A | Round 3 standings

Rank Name Flags Score Fed. M/F Rating TPR W-We 1 2 3
1 GM Caruana, Fabiano   2.5 ITA M 2736 2910 +0.59 1 ½ 1
2 GM Alekseev, Evgeny   2.5 RUS M 2670 2886 +0.77 1 1 ½
3 GM Balogh, Csaba   2.5 HUN M 2665 2847 +0.62 ½ 1 1
4 GM Khismatullin, Denis   2.5 RUS M 2664 2889 +0.80 1 1 ½
5 GM Korobov, Anton   2.5 UKR M 2660 2873 +0.74 1 ½ 1
6 GM Zhigalko, Sergei   2.5 BLR M 2658 2879 +0.78 1 1 ½
7 GM Gupta, Abhijeet   2.5 IND M 2652 2880 +0.82 1 1 ½
8 GM Rodshtein, Maxim   2.5 ISR M 2634 2897 +0.96 1 1 ½
9 GM Tomashevsky, Evgeny   2.0 RUS M 2740 2711 -0.09 ½ 1 ½
10 GM Le, Quang Liem   2.0 VIE M 2714 2761 +0.18 1 ½ ½
11 GM Vallejo Pons, Francisco   2.0 ESP M 2705 2746 +0.16 ½ 1 ½
12 GM Jobava, Baadur   2.0 GEO M 2704 2753 +0.18 1 ½ ½
13 GM Sasikiran, Krishnan   2.0 IND M 2700 2738 +0.15 ½ 1 ½
14 GM Eljanov, Pavel   2.0 UKR M 2690 2748 +0.22 1 ½ ½
15 GM Andreikin, Dmitry   2.0 RUS M 2688 2743 +0.21 1 ½ ½
16 GM Zvjaginsev, Vadim   2.0 RUS M 2688 2731 +0.16 ½ 1 ½
17 GM Akopian, Vladimir   2.0 ARM M 2685 2725 +0.16 1 0 1
18 GM Kobalia, Mikhail   2.0 RUS M 2673 2718 +0.18 ½ 1 ½
19 GM Bu, Xiangzhi   2.0 CHN M 2670 2712 +0.15 ½ 1 ½
20 GM Bartel, Mateusz   2.0 POL M 2658 2766 +0.43 1 ½ ½
21 GM Ragger, Markus   2.0 AUT M 2655 2642 -0.03 0 1 1
22 GM Iordachescu, Viorel   2.0 MDA M 2651 2792 +0.57 1 ½ ½
23 GM Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter   2.0 ROU M 2647 2772 +0.50 1 ½ ½
24 GM Negi, Parimarjan   2.0 IND M 2641 2723 +0.33 ½ 1 ½
25 GM Sokolov, Ivan   2.0 NED M 2641 2767 +0.51 1 ½ ½
26 GM Safarli, Eltaj   2.0 AZE M 2638 2651 +0.05 ½ ½ 1
27 GM Socko, Bartosz   2.0 POL M 2636 2757 +0.49 1 ½ ½
28 GM Khalifman, Alexander   2.0 RUS M 2632 2697 +0.26 ½ 1 ½
29 GM Sandipan, Chanda   2.0 IND M 2628 2625 -0.03 ½ ½ 1
30 GM Sjugirov, Sanan   2.0 RUS M 2622 2689 +0.27 ½ 1 ½
31 GM Melkumyan, Hrant   2.0 ARM M 2620 2648 +0.09 0 1 1
32 GM Gajewski, Grzegorz   2.0 POL M 2616 2717 +0.42 1 ½ ½
33 GM Aleksandrov, Aleksej   2.0 BLR M 2612 2781 +0.68 ½ ½ 1
34 GM Robson, Ray j 2.0 USA M 2596 2691 +0.38 0 1 1
35 GM Esen, Baris   2.0 TUR M 2534 2763 +0.93 ½ ½ 1
36 GM Sethuraman, S.P.   2.0 IND M 2529 2761 +0.94 ½ ½ 1
37 GM Nepomniachtchi, Ian   1.5 RUS M 2735 2605 -0.53 ½ ½ ½
38 GM Iturrizaga, Eduardo   1.5 VEN M 2649 2666 +0.07 1 ½ 0
39 GM Ni, Hua   1.5 CHN M 2641 2552 -0.37 ½ ½ ½
40 GM Khairullin, Ildar   1.5 RUS M 2638 2544 -0.38 ½ ½ ½
41 GM Yu, Yangyi j 1.5 CHN M 2631 2563 -0.28 1 0 ½
42 GM Zhou, Jianchao   1.5 CHN M 2619 2548 -0.28 1 0 ½
43 GM Salgado Lopez, Ivan   1.5 ESP M 2618 2596 -0.08 1 ½ 0
44 GM Solak, Dragan   1.5 TUR M 2613 2523 -0.35 ½ 1 0
45 GM Bocharov, Dmitry   1.5 RUS M 2611 2608 -0.02 0 ½ 1
46 GM Popov, Ivan   1.5 RUS M 2599 2653 +0.22 ½ 0 1
47 GM Zherebukh, Yaroslav   1.5 UKR M 2594 2641 +0.19 ½ 0 1
48 GM Rakhmanov, Aleksandr   1.5 RUS M 2593 2654 +0.24 0 1 ½
49 GM Zhigalko, Andrey   1.5 BLR M 2576 2620 +0.18 ½ 0 1
50 GM Jumabayev, Rinat   1.5 KAZ M 2573 2561 -0.05 0 ½ 1
51 GM Ghaem Maghami, Ehsan   1.5 IRI M 2570 2650 +0.33 ½ ½ ½
52 GM Jankovic, Alojzije   1.5 CRO M 2568 2511 -0.22 0 ½ 1
53 WGM Ju, Wenjun w 1.5 CHN F 2552 2634 +0.34 0 1 ½
54 IM Yilmaz, Mustafa   1.5 TUR M 2521 2634 +0.46 ½ ½ ½
55 IM Venkatesh, M.R.   1.5 IND M 2499 2607 +0.44 0 1 ½
56 IM Grigoryan, Karen H. j 1.5 ARM M 2482 2599 +0.47 0 1 ½
57 GM Mamedov, Rauf   1.0 AZE M 2636 2403 -0.95 ½ ½ 0
58 GM Guseinov, Gadir   1.0 AZE M 2634 2397 -0.95 ½ ½ 0
59 GM Ponkratov, Pavel   1.0 RUS M 2611 2516 -0.37 ½ 0 ½
60 GM Savchenko, Boris   1.0 RUS M 2609 2486 -0.50 0 0 1
61 GM Ulibin, Mikhail   1.0 RUS M 2587 1937 -0.77 + 0 0
62 GM Ipatov, Alexander   1.0 TUR M 2586 2454 -0.53 0 ½ ½
63 GM Morovic Fernandez, Ivan   1.0 CHI M 2582 2504 -0.32 ½ 0 ½
64 GM Bosiocic, Marin   1.0 CRO M 2580 2494 -0.35 0 1 0
65 GM Grigoriants, Sergey   1.0 RUS M 2570 2464 -0.42 ½ 0 ½
66 GM Shomoev, Anton   1.0 RUS M 2570 2445 -0.50 0 0 1
67 GM Adhiban, B.   1.0 IND M 2561 2523 -0.14 1 0 0
68 GM Fedoseev, Vladimir j 1.0 RUS M 2525 2489 -0.14 ½ 0 ½
69 GM Bukavshin, Ivan j 1.0 RUS M 2517 1873 -0.75 0 0 +
70 GM Harika, Dronavalli w 1.0 IND F 2516 2492 -0.08 ½ 0 ½
71 IM Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi j 1.0 IND M 2513 2502 -0.03 ½ ½ 0
72 IM Gundavaa, Bayarsaikhan   1.0 MGL M 2493 2499 +0.02 ½ ½ 0
73 GM Cori, Jorge j 1.0 PER M 2489 2538 +0.18 1 0 0
74 IM Shyam, Sundar M.   1.0 IND M 2462 2460 +0.00 0 ½ ½
75 WGM Shen, Yang w 1.0 CHN F 2447 1871 -0.58 0 + 0
76 GM Al-Modiahki, Mohamad   0.5 QAT M 2567 2286 -1.04 0 0 ½
77 GM Pridorozhni, Aleksei   0.5 RUS M 2555 2348 -0.73 0 ½ 0
78 GM Tukhaev, Adam   0.5 UKR M 2537 2329 -0.73 0 0 ½
79 GM Alsina Leal, Daniel   0.5 ESP M 2535 2360 -0.60 ½ 0 0
80 GM Pap, Gyula   0.5 HUN M 2533 2340 -0.67 0 ½ 0
81 GM Lu, Shanglei j 0.5 CHN M 2516 2321 -0.68 0 ½ 0
82 GM Dubov, Daniil j 0.5 RUS M 2498 2332 -0.56 ½ 0 0
83 WGM Paikidze, Nazi w 0.5 GEO F 2411 2339 -0.23 ½ 0 0
84 GM Inarkiev, Ernesto   0.0 RUS M 2689 0 +0.00 - - -
85 GM Gopal G.N.   0.0 IND M 2566 1894 -1.23 0 0 0
86 GM Szabo, Krisztian   0.0 HUN M 2547 1870 -1.26 0 0 0

Solution to the puzzle: No, Black missed a back rank tactic: 22... d4? 23. exd4 Bxd4 24. Nxd4 Nxd4 25. Bxd4 Rxd4 26. Qe5! 1-0

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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

Septimus's picture

Septimus

1 year 3 months ago

Jobaava's game was quite the tactical maze.

sab's picture

sab

1 year 3 months ago

Indeed, sir. Indeed.

BL's picture

BL

1 year 3 months ago

Dmitry Andreikin will be a force in the future. Watch this space.

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