2012 Aeroflot Open – Caruana leads with eight

The 11th Aeroflot Open is taking place in Moscow from February 7 to 15, 2012. Top seeds are Evgeny Tomashevsky, Fabiano Caruana, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Le Quang Liem, Francisco Vallejo Pons and Baadur Jobava, Krishnan Sasikiran, all ranked 2700 or higher. Tourney mode: Open tourney 9 rounds Swiss System. Time control: 100 minutes/40 moves + 50 minutes/20 moves + 15 minutes + 30 seconds/move starting with the first move. Game start: all rounds 12:00 (15:00 local Moscow time). Tiebreak systems: For tournament A and B: 1st: The number of games played with Black. Byes and forfeited games will be considered as games played with White. 2nd: The average of the opponents' ratings minus the highest and the lowest rating.

For the first time the festival is being held in the Cosmos Hotel (above), which is one of the largest in Moscow with over 1700 rooms. The hotel is located in one of the most beautiful and environmentally pure Moscow districts, within 20 travelling minutes from Red Square and only a 200m walk from the nearest subway station. You can find more on the regulations of the tournament here.

Report after round three

The playing hall [photo courtesy of the Russian Chess Federation]

While Gibraltar can claim to have the most 2700 players participating in its prestigious open, there is no doubt that in sheer depth of strength, the Aeroflot Open in Moscow, Russia, is still a notch above in strength. Divided into three open tournaments, each with Elo ranges ensuring a relatively balanced playing field, the A tournament is reserved for players rated 2550 and above. A few exceptions are always made to allow young players or others to sharpen their teeth on top competition, but mostly it is a test of the best to see who is able to stand out in the crowd, in a field of 86 players, 47 of whom are rated over 2600.

The winner will not only take home a non-negligible 20 thousand Euro first prize, with all the bragging rights that accompany it, but also entry into the Dortmund Super GM tournament later this year. Last year, Vietnamese Liem Le Quang won it for a second time, a first, and springboarded into the 2700 club where he resides. That said, he is only fourth in the list despite his 2714 rating, and must compete against Evgeny Tomashevsky (2740), Fabiano Caruana (2736), Yan Nepomniatchi (2735), as well as Francisco Vallejo Pons (2705), Baadur Jobava (2704), and Krishnan Saskiran (2700).

After three rounds, no one is on 3.0/3, though eight are tied with 2.5/3. First and foremost in that group is Italian GM Fabiano Caruana (picture above), who comes in rated 2736 and ranked 17th in the world, but that is only because his Elo has yet to catch up with him. As a matter of fact, if one includes his result at Reggio Emilio and Wijk aan Zee, and adds in his three games at Aeroflot, he is rated a huge 2768, and ranked seventh in the world, only two points shy of Nakamura ranked sixth. He would need to crack 2785 to surpass Radjabov though, which might be expecting too much from one event. Still, if he continues to play as he did against Venezuelan Eduardo Iturrizaga (2649), who knows?

Standings after three rounds

Links Official tournament site All Open A games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client and get immediate access. Or you can get our latest Fritz 13 program, which includes six months free premium membership to Playchess.

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