Aeroflot Open 2017

[Chris Rice]

Round 1 of 9 of the 2017 edition is due to begin on February 21. As I understand the rules one needs a minimum rating of 2550 to play in A-Group and there are 66 players, 20 of whom are over 2650 and 5 over 2700 so a classy field but, unfortunately, none of the top ten.

In addition there are another 24 players below that rating who managed to get in for whatever reason but notably the 86th ranked player in the 90 strong field is the Indian prodigy, Praggnanandhaa (2455), who you might remember from the London Classic and Hastings. Danny Gormally commented that he thinks he might be a future world champion. Here's a link to the field: http://chess-results.com/tnr255922.aspx?lan=1

The venue is the formidable looking building, the Cosmos Hotel, 20 minutes from Red Square on the subway with 1700 rooms. http://acfed.ru/tournament/aeroflot-open-2016/en/

[Leonard Barden]

notably the 86th ranked player in the 90 strong field is the Indian prodigy, Praggnanandhaa (2455), who you might remember from the London Classic and Hastings. Danny Gormally commented that he thinks he might be a future world champion.

Just as notable is the 89th ranked in the field, Praggna's Uzbek rival Nodirbek Abdusattorov. Four months ago he achieved the youngest ever GM norm, a 2679 performance at St Petersburg (4/6 v GMs rated 2560-2660). With that result, he is ahead in the race between them to break Karjakin's GM age record of 12 years 7 months.

My Guardian article of 6 January gives fuller details: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/ ... rld-record

[Mick Norris]

Round 1 starts at noon UK time; games are on chess24live amongst others

[NickFaulks]

16 players rated under 2500 snuck into the top group. They scored +4,=6,-6, so they didn't disgrace themselves.

[Leonard Barden]

The significant result was that 12-year-old Nodirbek Abusattorov, referred to in my post above and already with the youngest ever GM result, crushed his 2500-rated Indian GM opponent with the black pieces in only 19 moves, a fine start to the Uzbek boy's bid for his second GM norm and for getting closer to breaking Karjakin's world age record for the GM title.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

The significant result was that 12-year-old Nodirbek Abusattorov, referred to in my post above and already with the youngest ever GM result, crushed his 2500-rated Indian GM opponent with the black pieces in only 19 moves, a fine start to the Uzbek boy's bid for his second GM norm and for getting closer to breaking Karjakin's world age record for the GM title.

Amazing. I can only find the top 40 boards live or on PGNs of that round. Does anyone have the moves for that game?

Ah, found it on the official site:

http://www.acfed.ru/tournament/aeroflot ... 016/games/

(Yeah, I know the URL says 2016)

Oh, only the result there, no moves?

Praggnanandhaa lost to the Norwegian GM Aryan Tari.

[Paul Cooksey]

Here is the chess24 pgn, linked by the offical site.

It doesn't have real clock times so difficult to know whether Nodi's prep included knowing ne4 was a blunder.

[Event "Aeroflot Open"] [Site "chess24.com"] [Date "2017.02.21"] [Round "1"] [White "Lalith Babu M R"] [Black "Abdusattorov, Nodirbek"] [Result "0-1"] [Board "47"] [WhiteElo "2584"] [WhiteTitle "GM"] [WhiteCountry "IND"] [WhiteFideId "5024595"] [WhiteEloChange "-7"] [BlackElo "2429"] [BlackTitle "FM"] [BlackCountry "UZB"] [BlackFideId "14204118"] [BlackEloChange "7"] 1. d4 {[%clk 1:40:30]} Nf6 {[%clk 1:40:30]} 2. c4 {[%clk 1:40:30]} e6 {[%clk 1:40:30]} 3. Nc3 {[%clk 1:40:30]} Bb4 {[%clk 1:40:30]} 4. Qc2 {[%clk 1:40:30]} d5 {[%clk 1:40:30]} 5. cxd5 {[%clk 1:40:30]} exd5 {[%clk 1:40:30]} 6. Bg5 {[%clk 1:40:30]} h6 {[%clk 1:40:30]} 7. Bh4 {[%clk 1:40:30]} O-O {[%clk 1:40:30]} 8. e3 {[%clk 1:40:30]} Be6 {[%clk 1:40:30]} 9. a3 {[%clk 1:40:30]} Be7 {[%clk 1:40:30]} 10. Bd3 {[%clk 1:40:30]} c5 {[%clk 1:40:30]} 11. dxc5 {[%clk 1:40:30]} d4 {[%clk 1:40:30]} 12. exd4 {[%clk 1:40:30]} Nc6 {[%clk 1:40:30]} 13. Nge2 {[%clk 1:40:30]} Nxd4 {[%clk 1:40:30]} 14. Nxd4 {[%clk 1:40:30]} Qxd4 {[%clk 1:40:30]} 15. Ne4 {[%clk 1:40:30]} Nxe4 {[%clk 1:40:30]} 16. Bxe7 {[%clk 1:40:30]} Bb3 {[%clk 1:40:30]} 17. Qe2 {[%clk 1:40:30]} Nxf2 {[%clk 1:40:30]} 18. Qxf2 {[%clk 1:40:30]} Qxd3 {[%clk 1:40:30]} 19. Qh4 {[%clk 1:40:30]} Bc4 {[%clk 1:40:30]} 0-1

[Chris Rice]

Lalith lost any chance of an opening advantage after 11 dxc5 but it's 15 Ne4, as you say, that is the real howler which immediately loses. Probably best is 15 Bxf6 Bxf6 16 0-0 and the game continues.

It's interesting that on Susan Polgar's site the number of upsets are highlighted yet the Abdusattarov game is not one of them. He's frighteningly good.
https://chessdailynews.com/upset-galore ... -aeroflot/

[David Sedgwick]

This is of course the second time recently that Babu Lalith has been the minor player in a news story.

[Chris Rice]

More surprises in Round 2 but Abdusattorov's loss wasn't one of them. Praggnanandhaa managed to get off the mark with a draw as Black against a much higher rated opponent though. Matlakov, Smirin and Bluebaum are the only players on 2/2.

https://chessdailynews.com/more-upsets- ... flot-open/

[Chris Rice]

Round 3 produced just one decisive game in the first 11 boards so there is no one on 3/3 which is highly unusual. Our two child prodigies are on 1/3 so we can only hope things pick up a bit in the later rounds. Six players lead on 2.5/3 and attached is a ChessBase report on the first three rounds.

http://www.chess-results.com/tnr255922. ... YES&wi=821

http://en.chessbase.com/post/the-presti ... 017-begins

[Chris Rice]

Round 6 pairings for the Aeroflot which Najer leads on 4.5/5. Suspicion that the ISR and IRI players are being kept apart. Smirin has more points than the 6 IRI players but Huzman is around the same points as the IRI players. Short of a confession is there any way one can tell if this is the case?

http://chess-results.com/tnr255922.aspx ... IRI&wi=821

[David Sedgwick]

Round 6 pairings for the Aeroflot which Najer leads on 4.5/5. Suspicion that the ISR and IRI players are being kept apart. Smirin has more points than the 6 IRI players but Huzman is around the same points as the IRI players. Short of a confession is there any way one can tell if this is the case?

http://chess-results.com/tnr255922.aspx ... IRI&wi=821

At a quick glance, it looks to me as though Huzman has his correct pairing for Round 6, without any adjustment having been made. I haven't looked at earlier rounds.

To answer your question, it can be checked by someone with Swiss Manager. You upload the tournament details and then re-run the pairings. That is how those who checked the Tradewise Gibraltar pairings established both that Hou Yifan's pairings were correct and that an IRI-ISR pairing had been avoided

[Alex Holowczak]

I've just checked the 2.5 scoregroup, and it is correct.

However, in the forbidden pairings, they are indeed forbidding certain pairings. Huzman is forbidden from playing Firouzja, Ghaem Maghami, Idani, Lorparizangeneh, Maghsoodloo and Tabatabaei.

This notwithstanding, taking out those forbidden pairings, the 2.5 scoregroup is the same.

[David Sedgwick]

However, in the forbidden pairings, they are indeed forbidding certain pairings. Huzman is forbidden from playing Firouzja, Ghaem Maghami, Idani, Lorparizangeneh, Maghsoodloo and Tabatabaei.

I had no idea that it was possible to hack into someone else's Swiss Manager to that extent. I feel that tournament organisers and arbiters should be made aware of the possibility.

Picking up a discussion in another thread, could some one unconnected with the Sharjah Grand Prix event hack into Swiss Manager and remove the spurious tiebreaks?