Ernesto Inarkiev from Russia won the Tournament A – Men’s Cup of Russia Stage in a brilliant manner. The Moscow grandmaster told the correspondent of the official Moscow Open website Eteri Kublashvili about his success.

- Ernesto, congratulations on a big win! What’s the secret of your success in the Moscow Open?

- Thank you. Honestly, last year turned to be very hard for me. I was working much on the change of that situation, and it’s nice to see this first result, proving all the work hasn’t been done for nothing.

The temperature reached its zenith in the finial rounds, reflected by the quality of the games played. The creative content of the contests in the lead groups is unlikely to please the competitors themselves since the interesting schemes were often coupled with serious oversights. An indicator of this are games in many ways surpassing the winners of the Cup of Russia stage and Student-grandmaster tournament.

The debutant of the Moscow Open Samvel Ter-Sahakyan became the winner of the A. Pochinok Memorial Student Grandmaster Cup. The Armenian grandmaster was leading in the course of the whole race and played to the draw with the rating favorite Daniil Dubov in the final round, that provided him with the victory.

- Samvel, congrats on the win! How can you evaluate your performance?

- Thank you. Of course, the tournament is very interesting, many talented players were playing in our competitions. Surely, I’m happy to win such a strong tournament.

The Tournament A of the Men's Cup of Russia Stage ended with a convincing victory of Ernesto Inarkiev (Russia). The Moscow grandmaster led throughout the whole the tournament, and in the final round he won over Champion of Russia Igor Lysyj in a long and tough struggle. As a result, the winner managed to score 8 of possible 9 points.

Anton Korobov (Ukraine), Francisco Vallejo (Spain), Tigran Petrosian (Armenia) and Vladislav Artemiev (Russia) have 7 points.

The Moscow Open Tournament B, namely, the Women's Cup of Russia Stage, ended with the victory of the 17-year old Chinese grandmaster Lei Tingjie. The chess player from “Tianxia” scored 8 of 9 possible points. After Round 8 she was the sole leader of the tournament race, and her victory over Marina Guseva in Round 9 guaranteed Lei first place.

The fight for the silver and the bronze medals turned out to be very serious as well. 

The GM Evgeni Dragomarezkiy of Moscow gained the lead in the final round of the Veterans’ Tournament. He drew his last game with Yuri Balashov, providing him 7.5 points and, resultingly, first place.

Evgeny Sveshnikov (Latvia) took second place. He was leading throughout the whole tournament, but went into a bit of a “skid” for the last four rounds and is half a point behind Dragomarezkiy.

This year the RSSU Student Grandmasters’ Cup was dedicated to the memory of Alexander Pochinok for the first time. He was the Head of the Ministry of Labour of Russia and one of the creators of the Department of chess in the RSSU.

The winner of the tournament represents Armenia, GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan scoring 6 of 9 possible points. Russian chess player Daniil Dubov had a chance to take first place, but he unable to outplay Ter-Sahakyan in the last round (the game ended in a draw), and thus scored only 5.5 points. With this result he took second. 

Sergey Galakhov, representing Russia, is the winner of the RSSU Amateurs’ Cup, Moscow Open 2015. He secured 8 straight wins, and finished his last game in a draw. That provided him with result of 8.5 of a possible 9 points.

Marat Denishev, Roman Alkaev (both representing Russia) and Sargis Manukyan (Armenia) scored 7.5 points at the finish. Denishev took the second place owing to tie-break rules, Manukyan taking third.

330 chess players took part in the tournament.

The representatives of Kazakhstan showed very good results in the children’s Moscow Open tournament: they won two gold and one silver medal.  Erzhan Shakenov, the head coach of Astana and coach of the National Union of Chess Players Chess Academy, told us about the development of the children’s chess in the Republic. Young athletes also took part in the conversation.

- Erzhan, tell us about your school, please. How many students and coaches do you have?
- Erzhan Shakenov: Our chess school is called the National Union of Chess Players Chess Academy.

On February 7, the culmination of the children’s tournament of the Moscow Open took place in the Russian State Social University building; specifically, the final Round 9 and the Closing Ceremony of the RSSU School Champions’ Cup. The nine days of intense struggle flew by as one moment, and the time tally the score has come.

The Ceremony started with the show of the specially prepared documentary film on chess, and then the spectators of the Ceremony were able to watch the performance by the RSSU dance group.

The Moscow Open festival is heading straight to the finish. The majority of the fans' attention is focused on those games affecting the outcome fo the tournament. For this reason the battle of Ernesto Inarkiev and Ian Nepomniachtchi could not go unnoticed.

This game was opened along a sharp line of the Sicilian Defense with kings castled on opposite sides of the board.  However in the heat of the middlegame play turned to ideas distinctly characteristic of the King's Indian Defense.

Sole leaders appeared in all the tournaments of the RSSU Moscow Open Cup one round left to the finish. And the winner of the Women’s Student competitions is already known. A brilliant result – 7 of possible 8 points – allowed the chess player from Indonesia Irine Kharisma Sukandar to win the first place a round left to the finish. The second and third lines of the bracket are divided between Dinara Saduakassova (Kazakhstan) and Alina Kashlinskaya (Russia), both of them scored 5 points. Petra Papp (Hungary) and Anna Iwanow (Poland) are half a step behind them.

Samvel Ter-Sahakyan (Amenia) is leading again in the Men’s Student Grandmaster competitions. 

 The RSSU School Champions’ Cup, Moscow Open 2015 was held over the course of nine days. More than 700 chess players from ten countries were competing in four age groups for the prizes.  And finally today we can name the winners and medalists.

Ilya Makoveev (Gelendzhik) and Satbek Akhmetdinov (Kazakhstan) scored 8 points in the U9 Boys’ group. In the last round the Russian player outplayed the athlete from Kazakhstan, who had led the whole tournament. He was placed first on tie-break rules. Sergey Gukhman (Tver) with 7.5 points took third. 

Traditionally, new stars appear at the Moscow Open festival. This time young Aydan Hojjatova from Azerbaijan is making an excellent showing in the Women’s Cup of Russia stage. She outplayed the representative of France Nino Maisuradze in Round 7 and is sharing places 1-4th with two rounds remaining.

- Aydan, how can you evaluate the last seven games?

- So far the Tournament is going alright. I have 6 points out of 7 possible. I lost to Aleksandra Goryachkina in Round 2 but won the rest of the games, and today I outplayed Nino Maisuradze. I hope, my series of victories will continue.

The leaders of the Men’s Cup of Russia Stage, Moscow Open 2015 Muscovites Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ernesto Inarkiev shared the board in the Round 7. Inarkiev was playing with the white and he was able to outplay his opponent. The victory in the game allowed Ernesto with 6,5 scored points to become a sole leader of the race again. 

The second place now belongs to the namesake of the ninth World Champion Tigran Petrosian (Armenia), who beat Russian Sergey Volkov in today’s round and scored 6 points. 

The member of the Russian National Team Sergey Karjakin is the guest of the Moscow Open Round 6. The super grandmaster shared his impressions and gave advice to our young participants.

- Sergey, do you follow the games of the tournament?
- Yes, of course, I watch the games. I’m impressed with the level of the play, in particular, the one, demonstrated by my National Team mate Ian Nepomniachtchi, who struggles for every chance in all the games. In general, the participants are very strong for the open tournament.

After a quick draw in Round 6 of the Veterans’ Tournament, RSSU Cup, the famous grandmaster and theorist came to the press-center and shared his impressions of the tournament and told us about chess life in Latvia and the forthcoming game with Anatoly Karpov.

- Evgeny Ellinovich, you are one of the leaders of the tournament. How have these six rounds been for you?

- They were ok. The World Champion Galina Strutinskaia didn’t come to play our game, and this was a luck out (laughing). So far I have managed to out prepare my colleagues because finally I have a coach – my son! I raised a coach for myself. I thought I would train him, but he says I’m a bad coach.