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.

 previous