On the evening of Feb. 7 the Moscow Open closing ceremony was held in Russian State Social University.

A lot of distinguished guests, who came to award the winners of the festival, attended the ceremony.
Memorable prizes were handled to the chess players participating in the main tournaments as well as in other numerous nominations. “The age mates of the victory” participants, who came from distant parts of the country to play in the tournament, were pointed by a special way.

At the end of the ceremony Moscow Open special guests had a floor and delivered their speech to all participants.

FIDE Vice-President, the Honor President of Russia Chess Federation Andrey Selivanov, congratulated all the chess players and organizers of the festival. He noted the tournament had been gaining momentum from year to year, and its geography only proved it. Selivanov thanked RSSU for the chess development and celebrating such a holiday, which has become an indispensable in Russian as well as in the world calendar.

President of the European Chess Union Boris Kutin said the festival made a big impression on him.
- I visited the festival for the first time, in spite of I had heard of him many times, said Kutin. - And I am really impressed with it.

According to Kutin, he and the President of the Moscow Chess Federation Vasily Zhukov discussed the main issues of cooperation on the nearest future, such as the chess tournaments conducting and in the preparation of chess coaches.

President of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) Kirsan Ilyumzhinov congratulated the winners with the successful end of the festival. He thanked the RSSU rector Vasily Zhukov for his long-term contribution on the chess development.

- RSSU became a home and the center of chess life on the planet for the sixth time. And for the sixth time the festival extended its boundaries- not only because of tournaments, but also due to the various accompanying events. Along with the festival there were held lots of events, such as an arbitrators seminar, scientific-practical conference, the opening of the first online academy under FIDE, - said Ilyumzhinov.

President of the Moscow Chess Federation, President RGSU Ilyumzhinov thanked for his kind words and, in turn, expressed their gratitude to Kirsan and his speech at the award ceremony, which has become a tradition already.

- In the last 9 days we all supported each participant of the festival – said the President of the Moscow Chess Federation o, the rector of RSSU Vasily Zhukov. These ceremony moments are to be remembered for sure by participants for the rest of their life. There are not so many tournaments in Russia and the world, where the winners are awarded by distinguished people of the chess world, - added Zhukov.

The International Moscow Open 2010 ended on Saturday which was held at the Russian State Social University from January 30 till February 7.

The international grand master Konstantin Chernyshov from Voronezh won the main tournament of the festival. This is a great success for a player from Voronezh – he was only 46th in the start list of the championship. In the last tour he scored a tie with Vietnamese Le Liem and finished off the tournament with 7 points. Le Qang Liem, the multiple Olympic champion of the Russian team Evgeny Bareev and aspirant of RSSU the bronze medalist of Moscow Open 2009 Ernesto Inarkiyev showed the same results. According to additional indexes the silver medalist is the Vietnamese grand master and the bronze – Evgeny Bareev. 11 players lacked half a point and shared the positions from 5 to 15.
The prize money of the main tournament made up 2 500 000 rubles, from which the winner got 500 000.

The victory in the women’s event shared the Georgian Salome Melia and Nazi Paikidze scoring 7,5 points each. In the last tour they beat their rivals: Melia beats Zhao Xue from China and Paikidze – the Russian Valentina Gunina. According to tie-breaks the winner is 16 year old Nazi Paikidze, the Europe and world champion among girls, representing the Georgian chess federation. Since 2006 Paikidze lives in Moscow.
Zhao Xue as well as Baira Kovanova (Saratov), Darya Pustovoitova and Marina Romanko (both from Moscow) who won the games in the last tour and scored 7 points each, shared the positions 3-6. According to tie-breaks Kovanova won the bronze.
The prize money of the tournament “Open C” made up 500 000 rubles. The winner got 150 000.

The two-time USSR champion Vitaly Tseshkovsky from Krasnodar is the first in the tournament of veterans. In the last tour he beat Alexander Zakharov (Rostov-na-Donu) and scored 7,5 points. Evgeny Vasyukov (Moscow) and Vladimir Onoprienko (Noyabrsk) shared the second-third places scoring the tournament with 7 points each. The tie-breaks ranged them in this order.
The whole prize fund of the tournament mad up 650 000 rubles, the winner got 65 000.

On February 7 shortly before the end of the main tournaments of the festival the World Cup on chess compositions solving ended, which was held within the Moscow Open (tournament “F”) for the second year at a row. 28 players from 7 countries were participating in this tournament: from Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine and Japan.

The winner of the Cup is the current world champion polish grand master Piotr Murdzia. He scored 86 points after 2 playing days. The world and Europe champion Russian grand master Georgy Evseev wins the silver (80,5). The international master from Belarus Alexander Bulavka (76,75) wins the bronze which was very unexpected for most of the specialists

Moscow Open 2010 chess festival occurring in Russian capital is about to end. The last but one round was played on February 6.

In the woman tournament all the four leaders’ games finished successfully and all the winners played white. Zhao Xue (China) won Paehtz Elisabeth (Germany) and scored 7 points, so she solely leads the tournament. Victorious Melia Salome, Paikidze Nazi (both from Georgia) and Gunina Valentina (Russia) chase the leader after the eighth round.

In the final ninth round Zhao Xue will play black with Melia Salome, Gunina Valentina will play black with Paikidze Nazi.

The leader of the major tournament changed again. Grandmaster Le Quang Liem (Vietnam) defeated Sasikiran Krishnan (India) at the first table. Also Chernyshov Konstantin won Motylev Alexander and Bareev Evgeny bet Bologan Viktor (all from Russia). The leading trio scored 6,5 points each before the final round:  Le Quang Liem, Bareev Evgeny and Chernyshov Konstantin. 6 participants scored 6 points each, among them: Sasikiran Krishnan (India), Amonatov Farrukh, Inarkiev Ernesto, Andreikin Dmitry, Volkov Sergey and Belov Vladimir (all from Russia).
In the final round Chernyshov Konstantin will play white with Le Quang Liem, Bareev Evgeny will play black with Sasikiran Krishnan.

Vasiukov Evgeni reached the two-time USSR champion Tseshkovsky Vitaly, who led during several round in the veteran tournament. They both scored 6,5 points before the final round. 11 players scored 6 points each.

Shahinyan David was once again victorious in the amateur tournament. Before the final round he still has hundred-per-cent result and one point ahead of his competitors.

On Saturday, February 6 the youth tournament of the international chess festival Moscow Open 2010 “Heirs of Victory” held at the Russian State Social University came to an end. More than 500 young players from more than 100 Russian cities as well as from India, Ukraine and Kazakhstan participated in the tournaments.

The awarding ceremony of the winners and medalists was held at the school hall of RSSU. The president of the International school chess union, the director of the Moscow Open festival Alexander Kostyev mentioned that he sees most of the players present here at the festival not the first time. – Among today’s winners of the Moscow Open youth championships there are certainly future world and Europe champions among pupils. And some of them will enter RSCU for chess department and choose the profession of a chess coach, - added Kostyev.

The winner in team classification – “The tournament of school teams” – is the brigade from the Second Saint-Petersburg high school. As a reward the players got a pass to the Intercontinental championship among school teams which would be held in Chicago (USA) in March this year.
The team “Maestro” from Berdsk of Novosibirsk region is the first at the “Tournament of school clubs”. Winning the last round the Siberians beat the team of the Moscow school №1189 which was leading till the last day. “Maestro” players won passes to the Europe tournament among children’s chess clubs.

In individual classification - “Tournament of school champions” – the winners were awarded by a paid trip to the Europe championship among pupils which would be held in Greek Kaliteya at the beginning of April. The championships were held in Swiss system consisting of 8 tours.

Kamilya Zamalova from Kazan is the winner in the youngest age category among the chess players not older than 9 years. In 8 tours she scored just one tie and finished off the tournament with 7,5 points. 

Semen Lomasov from Moscow practicing in capital SCYCOR “Youth of Moscow” turned out to be the winner in this age category among boys. During the tournament he scored only 2 ties and scored 7 points leaving behind for half step his 5 rivals. Irina Drogovoz from Khanty-Mansiysk is the winner among girls in the age category till 11. Getting 7 points she was ahead for half a point of Irina Alexeeva from Kurgan.

Sergey Drygalov from Kurgan is the winner in the same age category among boys with the result in 7,5 points.

Lubov Kosticina from Izhevsk was the best in the tournament among girls under 13. She showed 100% results and was 2 points ahead of her immediate rivals.
Ramil Faizrakhmanov from Kazan is the winner in the tournament among boys under 13 scoring 7 points.

The pupil of the Moscow chess school №3 Daria Vlasova is the best among girls under 15 scoring 7 points from 8.

Mikhail Chernyuk from Langepas wins the tournament among boys under 15 going ahead of Konstantin Nikologorsky from Moscow in additional results.
Bika Bulatkhanova from Dilim (Dagestan) is the winner of the tournament among girls under 17.

The seventh round games of Moscow Open 2010, occurring in Moscow city, were played on Friday.

In two rounds before final, a sole leader in the major tournament of the festival was set - Sasikiran Krishnan, who bet Andreikin Dmitry (Russia). Indian grandmaster scored 6 points, and he is 0,5 points ahead of one's competitors.

A group of 6 participants scored 6 points each. Among them Bareev Evgeny and Le Quang Liem (Vietnam) tied the score with each other; and also victorious Bologan Viktor (Moldova), bronze medalist of Moscow Open-2009 Inarkiev Ernesto, Moscow Open-2005 winner Amonatov Farrukh and Chernyshov Konstantin (all from Russia).

In the last but one eighth round in the leaders group “A” will play: Le Quang Liem vs. Krishnan, Bareev vs. Bologan, Amonatov vs. Inarkiev, Motylev vs. Chernyshov.

In the woman tournament of Moscow Open festival the leading trio of today’s victorious players was set. Playing black, Zhao Xue (team China) won Grabuzova Tatiana (Russia); Paehtz Elisabeth (Germany) bet Pourkashiyan Atousa (Iran); Romanko Marina (Russia) defeated Galojan Lilit (Armenia). The leaders scored 6 points each.

Melia Salome (Georgia), Manakova Maria, Gunina Valentina, Paikidze Nazi and Pustovoitova Daria (all from Russia) scored 5,5 points each.

In the next round at the first tables will play Zhao Xue vs. Paehtz Elisabeth and Gunina Valentina vs. Romanko Marina.

Shahinyan David solely leads the amateur tournament. Being once again victorious in the seventh round, he leads with hundred-per-cent result. He is chased by 13 players scored 6 points each.
The key matches finished with the draw score in the veteran tournament. Tseshkovsky Vitaly tied the score with Vasiukov Evgeni, and kept his leading position. Zaitsev Igor tied the score with Kremenietsky Anatoly. After seventh round Tseshkovsky scored 6 points; seven chess players scored 5,5 points each: Vasiukov Evgeni, Kremenietsky Anatoly, Bojarinov Victor, Zaitsev Igor, Zakharov Alexander, Turikov Viktor, Shvedchikov Anatoli.  

6 round games were played on Thursday at the Moscow Open 2010 festival.

5 chess players are heading the competitions: Sasikiran Krishnan (India), Le Quang Liem (Vietnam), Andreikin Dmitry (Russia), Bareev Evgeny (Russsia), Kurnosov Igor (Russia) – they all scored by 5 points.

The game of the round between Dmitry Andreikin (Russia) and Moldavian Viktor Bologan (Moldovia) had 75 chess moves and ended up in a draw in the queen’s endgame, which allowed four other chess players to catch up with the leading group.

In this round Bareev defeated with the black pieces his compatriot Motylev Alexander, Igor Kurnosov (Russia) was stronger than Matlakov Maxim (Russia). The leader of team India Sasikiran Krishnan defeated with the black pieces Khismatullin Denis (Russia); Le Quang Liem (Vietnam) took down Zhigalko Sergei (Belarus). 13 players are half points behind the leaders. In the 7th round game there will be a fight between following chess players: Sasikiran Krishnan- Andreikin Dmitry; Bareev Evgeny- Le Quang Liem; Inarkiev Ernesto- Kurnosov Igor.

In Female tournament 8 participants, who scored 5 points, are leading after 6 round games. Two key games of this tournament ended up in a draw. Galojan Lilit (Armenia) tied the score with Paehtz Elisabeth (Germany); Melia Salome (Georgia) shared the points with Grabuzova Tatiana (Russia). Also Zhao Xue (China), Pourkashiyan Atousa (Iran), Romanko Marina (Russia) and Manakova Maria joined the leaders defeating their opponents.

11 participants scored 4,5 points. In 7 round games there will be holding following meetings: Grabuzova Tatiana - Zhao Xue; Paehtz Elisabeth - Pourkashiyan Atousa; Romanko Marina - Galojan Lilit; Manakova Maria - Melia Salome.

Tseshkovsky Vitaly keep on hold the leadership in Contemporaries of the Victory tournament: after the draw game with Zaitsev Igor in 6 round, Vitaly scored 5,5. Zaitsev, Vasiukov Evgeni, Zilbert Oleg, Kremenietsky Anatoly are behind in the score 0,5 points.

More than halfway past on the international festival Moscow Open 2010 occurring in RSSU.

In the major tournament “A” a sole leader is identified. It is Russian champion among juniors Andreikin Dmitry, who bet Zhigalko Sergei (Belorussia) with black. All the rest games in the leading group finished with draw scores. The points were shared between Russians Inarkiev Ernesto and Motylev Alexander; Khismatullin Denis and Kurnosov Igor; Russian Cup 2009 winner Bareev Evgeny and Grachev Boris; also Bologan Viktor (Moldavia) and Le Quang Liem (Vietnam).

After five rounds Andreikin scores 4,5 points. Each of 14 chess players scored 4 points: Inarkiev, Motylev, Bologan, Le Liem, Khismatullin, Kurnosov, Bareev, Grachev, and also fifth round victorious Bu Xiangzhi (China), Sasikiran Krishnan (India), Rublevsky Sergei, Amonatov Farrukh, Belov Vladimir and Matlakov Maxim.

In sixth round games in leaders group “A” will meet:

Munguntuul Batkhuyag (Mongolia) led the woman festival tournament after four rounds, but in the fifth one she failed playing white with Galojan Lilit (Armenia). After that the four chess players at ones reached the leading position: Galojan Lilit, Paehtz Elisabeth (Germany), Melia Salome (Georgia) and Grabuzova Tatiana (Russia). They scored 4,5 points each. 13 players scored 4 points.

In the sixth round Galojan will play white with Paehtz, Grabuzova will play black with Melia.

Tseshkovsky Vitaly from Krasnodar continues to win in Contemporaries of the Victory tournament. In the fifth round he won in the game with an international master Onoprienko Vladimir, and having hundred-per-cent result he leads the tournament. He is chased by 3 Muscovitets: Zaitsev Igor, Kremenietsky Anatoly and Zilbert Oleg.

In the sixth round Tseshkovsky will play black with Zaitsev, and Zilbert will play white with Kremenietsky.

Four participants lead the amateur tournament, group “B”: Kotov Alexander, Krivonos Nikolay,  Bronnikov Konstantin, Shahinyan David. Each of them scored 5 points out of 5.

The fourth round of Moscow Open 2010 festival in RSSU classrooms was over on Tuesday late evening.

RSSU student Munguntuul Batkhuyag (Mongolia) solely leads the woman tournament. Playing black, she won international master Ghader Pour Shayesteh (Iran). After four rounds, Munguntuul has hundred-per-cent result.

Two other games in the leading group – Paehtz Elisabeth (Germany) vs. Bodnaruk Anastasia and Pustovoitova Daria vs. Romanko Marina (both from Russia) finished with draw scores. Before the fifth round, 12 participants are close to the leading positions.

The main tournament has no obvious leader: 11 players scored 3,5 points and lead the participant list. Game winners: Bologan Viktor (Moldavia), Le Quang Liem (Vietnam), Zhigalko Sergei (Belorussia), Kurnosov Igor, Grachev Boris, Inarkiev Ernesto, Bareev Evgeny, Andreikin Dmitry and Mozharov Mikhail joined Motylev Alexander and Khismatullin Denis, who quickly  drew their games. Team Moldavia leader Bologan bet vice-world champion among women Hou Yifan (China) in this round, and RSSU graduate Inarkiev Ernesto bet Gochelashvili David. A group of 21 players, scored 3 points, follow the leaders.

Tseshkovsky Vitaly and Onoprienko Vladimir will fight for the leading position in the fifth round of Contemporaries of the Victory tournament.  They have no score loss after four rounds. 8 players lack of 0,5 points to reach them.

Nine chess players keep on participating without the loss after 3 rounds in Contemporaries of the Victory tournament, dedicated to the 65th annual of the victory in the great patriotic war. There were participating: double USSR champion Vitaly Tseshkovsky (Krasnodar). In the far 1978 year the grand master shared the victory with the legendary world champion Mikhail Tal.

Anatoly Shvedchikov, Oleg Zilbert, Vladimir Onoprienko, Viktor Bojarinov, Vladimir Dommes, Boris Kleiman, Yuri Chernov and Valentin Artyushikhin scored by 3 points. 12 participants have scored 2.5 points.

Draw results were dominataing in the third round games of top chess players at the Moscow Open festival. Only 2 games at the first 10 desks ended in a score defining 2 leaders of the tournament. They were Alexander Motylev who beat Sergei Azarov and Denis Khismatullin who beat Kamil Miton from Poland. Motylev and Khismatullin have 3 points each and they will play each other in the 4th round. Chinese chess players also tied the score: one of the team players Bu Xiangzhi shared the points with Vladimir Belov, the finalist of the women world championship Hou Yifan who playes in the men's tournament now - with Sergey Zhigalko from Belarussia. The bronze winner of the Moscow Open-2009 Ernesto Inarkiev tied the score with Alexey Iljushin. Prior to the fourth round 25 players have 2,5 points each.

The more effectiveness  was in women tournament. At ones, 7 participants won for the 3rd time.  Among them are the tournament favorites: Paehtz Elisabeth (German) beat Olga Petrova, and Romanko Marina (Russian team) beat Repina Varvara. Also, Munguntuul Batkhuyag (Mongolia), Bodnaruk Anastasia, Pustovoitova Daria, Petrukhina Irina, and Ghader Pour Shayesteh (Iran) won their games.

Number one on the tournament Ju Wenjun (China) drew with Paikidze Nazi (Georgia). Draw score was also in the game Melia Salome (Georgia) vs. Shaydullina Sandugach.
Each of 13 players scored 2,5 points out of 3 in that tournament.

The second day of research and practice conference “Chess as an innovating school subject in educational system” work was even more informative and insensitive.

The audience warmly welcomed Republic of Kalmykia counselor of state Elena Pokaninova. She read out the President of International Chess Federation, head of Republic of Kalmykia Kirsan Nikolaevich Ilyumzhinov’s Greeting speech.

Most of the speeches were dedicated to a thought that general chess education can not stand without a scientific basis. Irina Mikhailova Candidate of Educational Science made a speech about “Formation of scientific basis for Pedagogy Department and chess work organization in RSSU”. Igor Suhin Candidate of Educational Science’ report “Chess as an innovating school subject in the context of super national education” evoked a wide response.

Tamara Fesenko (Obninsk), Lada Titova (Satka) and Vladislav Poleckiy (Ukraine) made important for general chess education speeches.

An important role of chess as a school subject advocacy in the leading pedagogic mass media was noticed.  For example “Uchitelskaya Gazeta” was publishing some basic chess education data during 2006 - 2009.

Conference participants were united in a thought that chess promotion into educational system can not be realized without Internet service support. The main sites are USA Chess Federation site, which provides links for the results of important psycho-pedagogical researches, and FIDE committee “Chess in School”chairman Yuvensio Blanco (Venezuela)’ site. At the same time, Mikhail Mel’c (USA)’ report notices that Russian General Chess Education site – the best Russian-language site of child’s chess pedagogic at present. And foreign teachers can only dream to have such source of information.

The audience also warmly welcomed Moscow Chess Federation press-attaché Maria Fominyh speech, dedicated to the publication of her funny and illustrated book “Chess for Friends”. Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik wrote the book preface. Maria Fominyh spoke about fictitious characters copyrights, which is easily forgotten while publishing study materials. She also suggested establishing a child’s national chess magazine. During the conference days the participants were presented with a cute Veronika Kasatkina’s “chess copybook”, badges and calendars with symbols of World Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansisk on it, and also with a perfectly edited collection “Problems and prospects of chess education development in Russia: All-Russian research-to-practice conference data ” (Tomsk 2009).

On the last day of January research and practice conference “Chess as an innovating school subject in educational system” started within the framework of international Moscow Open chess festival. Greeting speeches from RSSU rector Vasily Zhukov, the Federation Council and others government structure was read out to participants.

The head of the “pedagogic and chess work organization” department RSSU Aleksandr Kostiev told about the successful undertaking – publishing the information from chess education conference, which took place in RSSU, and a publication of premiere collection “Project “Chess in RSSU”. Volume 1. International  research and  practice conference materials “Chess in Russian and World educational system” (2009).

The leitmotif of the conference was the article “Russian Chess Education” of the First President of Sakha Republic (Yakutia), deputy chairman of the Federation Council Mikhail Nikolaev. This article was quoted in many speeches.

Aleksandr Schegortsov, Doctor of Social Sciences, director of Federation Council chairman deputy secretariat, impressed the audience with his speech. He noticed that chess should be involved not only in life of each school, but in each family life.

Reports from regions-leaders of chess education were also of great interest. Methodist Tatiana Partys (Tomsk) and director of Internet-center of chess skills Galina Kovaleva (Khanty-Mansiysk) speeches and presentations covered a lot of methodical aspects of general compulsory education. The main feature of Khanty-Mansiysk autonomous area is using information technology during the chess lessons, the main feature of Tomsk district – narrow facility preparation to general compulsory education and good covering of compulsory schools. Guests from Tomsk brought the just published substantial collection “Problems and prospects of chess education development in Russia: All-Russian research-to-practice conference data”. 

The report of the deputy director of the school №758 Elvira Umanskaya (Moscow) was about chess lesson characteristics for “The Teacher of the Year” contest and also about the quality of teaching chess at elementary school.

The speeches of Alexander Timofeev, Vladimir Mechitov and others were dedicated to different issues arising at chess lessons at comprehensive schools. There was no special mood – there was a constructive, quite tough and emotional conversation among specialists.

The second round games have been finished at the International chess festival Moscow Open 2010.

The main favorites of the tournament keep on winning the games. There was a meeting between two grand masters, originally from Yekaterinburg, at the first table of tournament “A”. Alexander Motylev (number one of the start list) defeated Mikhail Ulybin. Also Bu Xiangzhi (China) won the game against Eldar Gasanov
Meanwhile, there were lots of chess standoffs at the group “A”. For instance, Sergey Rublevsky ended the game in a draw with Pridorozhni Aleksei; Victor Bologan (Moldova) shared the score with the Ukrainian Yaroslav Zinchenko. The leader of Brazilian team Jovany Veskovi did not manage to overcome Alexander Shimanov, Ian Nepomnyashij ended the game in a draw with Ruslan Sherbakov.

After two round games 20 chess players have 100 percent result at this tournament.

A favorite of the women tournament Ju Wenjun (China) defeated Elena Semenova. In terms of muffin-choking news, Valentina Gunina (National team Russia) has been beaten by Shayesteh Ghader (Iran); Maria Manakova, the Moscow champion, failed and yielded the championship to Alena Suslova. The Chinese Zhao Xue were not able to overcome Maria Butuk.

In tournament “B” after 2 round games 67 participant keep on competing without any loss. This competition is the most numerous, that is why the candidates to the leadership are to be defined close to the finals.

In veteran’s chess tournament “Contemporaries the Victory” titled chess players tend to win the games. Double USSR champion Vitaly
Tseshkovsky, multiple Moscow champion Evgeny Vasiukov, a champion of Leningrad Vladimir Karasev won their games. Igor Zaitsev (a couch of ex-world champion Anatoly Karpov) has missed its first half point.

The first two rounds of the great international tournament “Successors of the Victory” among pupils, traditionally occurred within the framework of Moscow Open, were played on Saturday and Sunday. Comprehensive school champions and children from more than 100 Russian cities and also from India, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, take part in it.

569 participants are divided into 10 categories – boys and girls play separately in age groups “under 9”, “under 11”, ”under ”13”, under 15”, “under 17” years. Participants fight for prices, set in several categories. They will be awarded by a free pass to the International School Championships.

The first category winners in each age group – “School Champions Tournament” – will be awarded by a pas to the European Championships among pupils, which will be held in Greek town Callithiyia on April 4-12.

Schoolschoolchilds are organized teams consisting of 3 boys and 1 girl born under 1998. They fight for a trip to Transcontinental Championship among school teams (Chicago, March 26-31).

Participant teams living in the same municipal districts, fight for category “Child’s Clubs Tournament”. Each team consists of 4 pupils under 14 years. The category winners will be able to go to European Championship among child’s municipal clubs (Varna, June 11-18).

First round games in the four main tournaments of the Moscow Open Festival were held on January 30, Saturday.

There are 187 participants in the main tournament “A”, 73 of which are grand masters and 49 - international masters.

The majority of the first round games ended as expected: top favorites beat their less known rivals. The exceptions are the games ended in a draw between Igor Kurnosov from Chelyabinsk vs Pavel Potapov from Salekhard, Muscovites Evgeniy Najer vs Gora Airapetian from Armenia and Farrukh Amonatov vs Eduard Gorovykh. We should also note that the top favorite of the tournament Sergei Rublevsky from Kazan was awarded with victory while his rival failed to attend the game.

Women also participate in the main tournament. The finalist of the Women’s World Championship Chinese Hou Yifan beat Russian FIDE master Alexey Potapov in the first round.

There are 399 participants in the tournament “B”, 31 of which have international titles.

More than 140 chess players are starting the tournament “C”, including 21 international grandmasters and 15 international masters. Among unexpected results we should mention the defeat of Svetlana Matveeva who was part of the Russian team of Ekaterina Frolova.

There are 130 participants in the tournament of veterans “of the same age as Victory” which is held within the festival and is dedicated to the 65th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic war. The oldest player is 91 years old! The merited chess masters Vitaly Tseshkovsky, Evgeni Vasiukov, Igor Zaitsev have started the fight. They all won their games in the first round.

The opening ceremony of the 6th international chess festival Moscow Open was held in RSSU main building ballroom. In the beginning, vocal and dancing groups performed a chess-players audience. After the introduction passed, the festival providers greeted participants.

First Deputy Head of the Sport Department Yury Dmitrievich Nagornykh wished good luck on behalf of Moscow Mayer Yuri Luzhkov. He also underlined that the tournament became one of the biggest in the world, in a short period of time. And  Russian State Social University is the most dedicated to chess university in the world.

“More than 1000 people and more than 100 grand chess masters take part in the festival. Despite financial difficulties, the tradition of Moscow Open will remain” – said Nagornyh.

Chairman of Moscow Chess Federation guardianship board Vecheslav Beresnev expressed confidence that future champions to replace the today’s champions are being born on the tournament halls of such festivals as Moscow Open. Beresnev took a favorable view of festival organization and tournament halls atmosphere, which inspires to create.

The former world champion Anatoly Karpov mentioned in his interview that with the beginning of the new millennium Russian Chess Federation managed to return the title one of the most active federations of the world due to the Moscow Chess Federation which played a significant role in this fact. The champion thanked RSSU management for supporting chess during all these years. According to Karpov’s words Moscow Open takes up the torch from the international chess tournament held in Wijk-aan-Zee in the Netherlands. Right after the end of the festival another big chess tournament “Aeroflot Open” is starting in the Russian capital.

In his interview the president of the Moscow Chess Federation, the rector of the Russian State Social University Vasily Zhukov sent his congratulations to the competitors, guests and organizers of the festival from the president of the Moscow Chess Federation Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the directors of the Russian Chess Federation Alexander Zhukov and Alexander Bakh; expressed his gratitude to the Sports Committee and Moscow Government for supporting the festival.

- I am happy that our university will become the capital of the chess world for upcoming 9 days. Moscow Open compelled the attention of the whole chess world to the chess masters these days. The whole intellectual aristocracy of the world gathered here, - said Zhukov.

Vasiliy Zhukov, the president of Moscow Chess Federation, rector of the Russian State Social University, member of the Russian Academy of Science, opened the press conference thanking all the partners of Moscow Open that had been supporting the tournament for six years now.  The MCF president said: “Moscow Open is the major tournament for the Moscow Chess Federation. And despite a difficult economic situation in the country, we managed to keep the prize fund and budget of the festival at the same level”. According to Zhukov, the festival will see approximately 1226 chess players from 30 countries including around 100 Grandmasters, Zhukov said. This year will see a new veteran tournament “Contemporaries of the Victory” run within the framework of the festival. And the women’s tournament will be a qualifying one for the women’s world blitz chess championship that will be held this September at the Russian State Social University. This event was initiated by Alexandra Kosteniuk, originally from Moscow, and supported by the Moscow Chess Federation. Apart from women’s chess, the Moscow Chess Federation gives priority to development of chess among veterans and disabled people. “Chess is the main social sport – a powerful source of creation and growth of the intellectual potential of the nation”, Zhukov added.

Alexander Bach, acting President of the Russian Chess Federation, said that Moscow Open is developing and becoming a more significant tournament despite difficult conditions. The Russian Chess Federation will continue supporting the festival. “The Moscow Chess Federation supported the tradition of holding world blitz chess championships taking responsibility for organising a women’s blitz chess event”, the RCF head added.

Alexander Polinskiy, the Head of Directorate for sports and entertainment events of Moscow Government, said that his organisation has been supporting Moscow Open for four years now. During this time they, together with the Moscow Chess Federation, Russian State Social University and the festival’s partners, have created a powerful team capable of fulfilling the most difficult tasks. There were no serious difficulties in organisation of the tournament. This year’s festival will also be organised at the highest level.

Alexander Kostyev, the Tournament Director, Vice-President of the Moscow Chess Federation, Head of RSSU’s Chess Department pointed out that the graduates of his Department have been actively involved in organisation of Moscow Open. And the past five years have seen 14 Grandmasters studying at the university including Sergey Karjakin and Valentina Gunina, members of the national chess team.