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.

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