February 6 the games of the final Round 9 of the RSSU School Champions’ Cup were played in the Russian State Social University. The competitions were held in the age groups U9, U11, U13 and U15, for boys and girls.

In the U9 Boy’s group Gleb Pidluzhny (Klaipeda, Lithuania) with a brilliant result (9 of possible 9 points) celebrated the victory. Each of Vladislav Dudarev (Novosibirsk) and Denis Grunin (Korolev) scored 7,5 points; Dudarev became second according to the additional index.

In the same age group of the Girls’ tournament the gold belongs to Ayaulym Kaldarova (Shykment, Kazakhstan) with 8 points. Daria Zaytseva (Dolgoprudny) with 7,5 points clinched the second place. And Samra Gasymova (Fizuli, Azerbaijan) with 7 points closed the group of winners.

Saturday, February 6 in the Russian State Social University the results of the RSSU Student Cup, the first ever tournament held under the umbrella of the Student Chess League within the frames of the Moscow Open festival were announced. The competitions were played in 9 rounds in three ranking categories, in the individual and the team events.

The gold medals in the team event were won by the students of the Far Eastern Federal University (Vladivostok) Danila Sutormin and Viktoria Chkhan. Together they managed to score 13,5 of possible 18 points. The team of the North Eastern Federal University (Yakutsk) became a silver medalist, its representatives Ruslan Pahomov and Tuyara Adamova scored 12 points. 

The leader has been changed two days before the finish of the Moscow Open Men’s Cup of Russia stage. Ranked first so far Urii Eliseev from Moscow lost to Artyom Timofeev in the Round 7 and let him occupy the first place. The grandmaster from Kazan scored 6,5 points.

Anton Korobov (Ukraine), Urii Eliseev and Ernesto Inarkiev (both from Moscow), Gergely Antal (Hungary) are half a step behind the leader. Five chess players scored 5,5 points. 

Duel power reigns in the Women’s Cup of Russia stage. The first place is shared between Anastasia Bodnaruk (St. Petersburg) and Veronika Schneider (Hungary), both scored 6 points. 

This time the Moscow Open commentator selected the central game of the round between Urii Eliseev and Vladislav Artemiev.

- Spectators always want to see a bright game – better with attacks and beautiful sacrifices. However, it happens very seldom. This time the commentator failed to select something corresponding to the taste of all the chess gourmets out of 25 games of the game day.

We decided to fix on the central game of the round. The fight of the leaders was not distinguished by external effects but was full of big inner tension. After all, in chess like in life we can’t celebrate holidays every day.

Traditionally the Moscow Open RSSU Cup opens new talents, but can it be differently if the festival is so huge? Many of young chess players prefer to play in the Moscow Open tournaments for adults but not for children, achieving high results at that.

For instance, in 2014 the grandmaster from the capital Urii Eliseev, aged 16 at that time, won a strong round-robin tournament for grandmaster students. This year grandmaster Eliseev became older and is the undoubted leader of the main Moscow Open competition – the Men’s Cup of Russia stage. In the Round 6 Urii was playing with the white and won over the prodigy, star of the Russian chess 17-year-old Vladislav Artemiev.

Please note, that the awarding ceremony of RSSU Cup among School Champions and RSSU Cup among students will start at 3 p.m. 6th February 2016.

In «A» and «B» tournaments, for a group, which plays in the Assembly hall of RSSU, round 8 will start 30 minutes later than scheduled, at 4.30 p.m.

14-year-old Alexandra Obolentseva can be easily called the “discovery” of this tournament. In spite of the loss in the Round 6 of the Women’s Cup of Russia stage, suffered from the ranking favorite Anastasia Bodnaruk, the girl kindly agreed to answer the questions of the correspondent of the Moscow Open official website Eteri Kublashvili.

- Sasha, tell us, how does this tournament turn out for you?
- The competition is running quite good. Still I haven’t played any complicated games, except the last one that I lost. I can admit, the most interesting games were against Anastasia Bodnaruk and Tatijana Vasilevich.

The Moscow Open commentator Alexander Kalinin selected the Round 5 game played between Denis Khismatullin and Sergey Savitskiy in the Men’s Cup of Russia stage.

- This round the «rebellion of masters” was stifled, and grandmasters captured leading positions. Besides the sole leader appeared – it’s Urii Eliseev from Moscow. And in our opinion grandmaster from Ufa Denis Khismatullin became a creative hero of the respective round.

According to the FIDE decision the venue of the 2016 World School Chess Championships will be changed. The tournament will be moved from Tunisia to another country. The hosting country will be elected at the meeting of the FIDE Presidential Board end of March. The dates of the World Championships are defined by the hosting country.

Taking into account the uncertainty of the situation and the responsibilities of the RSSU Cup Organizing Committee (2016 Moscow Open festival) towards future winners, as well as the uncertainty of the ruble – Euro rate, the following decision has been taken: to send the winners of the tournament groups M-9, M-11, M-13, M-15, G-9, G-11, G-13, G-15 to the European School Chess Championships that will be held in Greece, Kallithea between June 16 and 26, 2016.

The participants of the main tournaments of the 12th International RSSU Cup – 2016 Moscow Open Cup of Russia stages have to play only three rounds more. After six game days Muscovite Urii Eliseev with a 100% result is the only leader in the men’s competitions. Today he defeated Vladislav Artemiev from Omsk in the game of the respective round.

The leader is followed by Anton Korobov (Ukraine), Artyom Timofeev (Kazan) and the winner of the last tournament Ernesto Inarkiev (Moscow). All of them scored 5,5 points.

Anastasia Bodnaruk (St. Petersburg) and Lilit Galojan (Armenia) are now leading in the Women’s Cup of Russia stage. 

Wednesday, February 3 the Award Ceremony for winners and medalists of the Chess Composition competitions was held. These competitions are traditionally held within the frames of the Moscow Open RSSU Cup. This year the following tournaments were included into the program: Junior Championship in chess problem, open tournament for everybody, as well as the Quick-Show that was held the day before, and the Solving Show.

The young players had to solve twenty 2-move problems in the Quick-Show in the course of 30 minutes. As a result, three participants with equal number of points shared the victory: Sumiya Bilguun (Mongolia), Konstantin Novikov (Russia) and Danila Moiseev (Russia).

The ranking favorite of the Men’s Cup of Russia stage, one of the leaders of the tournament answered the questions of the correspondent of the official Moscow Open website Eteri Kublashvili.

- Anton, tell us please about your victory over your fellow countryman Oleg Ivanov.
- It was quite an ordinary game today. I was putting some pressure all the time but my opponent was uncertain, and it just grew up. I centralized the king in the end-game, created problems and won.

- Can you designate any creative successes in the course of the five rounds?
- I work very hard, like a miner, all of my games are very long and they finish only after the check, that’s why I can’t designate anything. But I’ve got will to win, and this is the main achievement.

These days 1.800 chess players from 38 countries of the world take part in the traditional, 12th International RSSU Cup – 2016 Moscow Open, one of the biggest in the number of participants chess festivals of the world. The main tournaments of the Moscow Open have crossed their equator today.

After five rounds Urii Eliseev (Moscow) with 5 points in the sole leader in the men’s competitions. Anton Korobov (Ukraine), Shamsiddin Vokhidov (Uzbekistan), Ernesto Inarkiev (Moscow), Artyom Timofeev (Kazan), Dmitry Kokarev (Penza), Vladislav Artemiev (Omsk) and Miran Oganian (Sochi) with half a point less are behind.

In the women’s tournament 14-year-old Alexandra Obolentseva captured the leadership. 

The Moscow Open commentator GM Alexander Kalinin continues to get us acquainted with the most interesting in his opinion games of every game day.

- The smoke from the shot of the starting gun is slowly disappearing, and suddenly we found out that after four rounds the tournament race is headed by three participants: young grandmaster from Moscow Urii Eliseev and two (!) international masters – Oleg Ivanov (Ukraine) and Vasiliy Korchmar (Russia). I offer to study of the key games of the previous round.