The most widely followed Tournament of the last couple weeks concluded today in Moscow. The Aeroflot Open is an anticipated event every year drawing a the finest talents in chess from world over. The players preparing for the Candidates Tournament in little over a week were understandably absent this time around. But that’s not to take anything from the most talented contenders who dueled it out through nine rounds displaying a fighting spirit.
Belarusian GM Vladislav Kovalev won the tournament securing the draw against GM Gabriel Sargissian very comfortably to clinch the prize. He got in the last round with a whole point lead over the rest of the field and it was not difficult for him to secure the draw in this last round in fifteen moves. Decisive games were seen on boards four and five where SP Sethuraman and Dmitry Gordievsky defeated Victor Bologan and Amin Tabatabaei respectively. Both were tied for second with a score of 6.5/9 but Sethuraman, due to a better tiebreak, took the higher spot on the leaderboard.
Chessplayers from all quarters of the globe get together every February to participate in the great festival in Moscow, Aeroflot Open tournament. Sixteen participants from India featured in group A in this event. There were three groups at the event and every group had multiple participants from India. Scoring seven straight draws in the first rounds Indian #3 GM Vidith Gujrathi broke the spell in Rd 8 only to draw in Rd 9. Definitely one of the tournaments he’d like to leave behind him and not think about the more or less sixteen rating points he will shred off. Young and talented Indian IM Praggnanandhaa Ramesh Babu missed his chance to score a GM norm after being held to a draw in the last round by GM Wen Yang in the final round.
Here’s a good look at the last round convincing win by GM Sethuraman S.P. to score second place prize money at the tournament with some very instructive play.
Simple inaccuracies by Bologan in the opening and precise implementation by Sethuraman.
Top three finishers of Group A: (L to R) SP Sethuraman, Vladislav Kovalev & Dmitry Gordievsky | Photo: Niklesh Jain
