Aeroflot Open – Mateusz Bartel comes out on top

The 11th Aeroflot Open is taking place in Moscow from February 7 to 15, 2012, for the first time in the Cosmos Hotel (above), which is one of the largest in Moscow. 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. You can find more on all the regulations of the tournament here.

Final report

It was a close race in the A tournament as Anton Korobov tried to protect his lead, however in round seven he was tripped by his Ukrainian compatriot Pavel Eljanov, while Polish Mateusz Bartel scored his third straight win, in a crucial game against Caruana, edging out Eljanov on tiebreak. This ultimately proved decisive. While both Bartel and Eljanov ended on two draws, Korobov caught up with them in round eight. This determined the final podium with Bartel in first on tiebreak, winning 20 thousand Euros and a ticket to Dortmund while Korobov took second.

GM Mateusz Bartel declared his win at the Aeroflot Open the greatest victory in his life
(photo Chess-News)

Pavel Eljanov, who had had a dreadful 2011 in terms of Elo, came in third, rejoining the 2700 club. Fabiano Caruana fought hard, with only two draws out of nine games, but was unable to overcome Hikaru Nakamura in the next rating list, though he will appear in seventh, just ahead of Sergey Karjakin.

The best junior in the A tournament was 16-year-old GM Vladimir Fedoseev, who came in 18th with 5.5/9 and a 2710 performance, while the best female player was Chinese GM Ju Wenjun who came in 63rd with a 2587 performance.

The B tournament was dominated from beginning to end by Turkish GM Emre Can whose flawless 6.0/6 start proved too much to overcome and three final draws were good for ten thousand Euros. A number of juniors also enjoyed norms in the B event such as the GM norms by 17-year-old IM Andrey Stukopin, who came in fourth, or the more precocious 14-year-old Russian Grigoriy Oparin who was fifth, and 14-year-old Indian IM Suri Vaibhav.

Nevertheless one stuck out who overshadowed even these remarkable adolescents: 12-year-old Chinese FM Wei Yi. In China he is known and respected, having won the World Youth Under-12 in 2010, and in 2010 he was not only the youngest player to ever play in the Chinese League Division A, but also beat GM Ni Hua, a two-time Chinese champion who had peaked at 2724 Elo the year before.

12-year-old FM Wei YI in the Chinese League Division A

Rated 2331, by round seven he had played four grandmasters, two international masters and one FIDE master for a whopping 2570 performance. He was well on his way to a full GM norm. Then the spell was broken in round eight when he lost to 18-year-old Indian IM Babu Lalith (2484). This was not the end however as he played 24-year-old Russian IM Sergey Pavlov (2477) and notched a final win. His 2551 performance was good for an IM norm and then some, though there can be little doubt he will be chasing the GM title very soon if he isn’t already. 2012 may very well be his year.

The C tournament was won by Russian Sergey Gilev after he beat the leader unrated Dmitry Mikhailov, who nevertheless finished third with a 2435 performance. In second was Gleb Apryshka.

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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