Matlakov & Moiseenko Very Equal First at Moscow Open
Top seeds Maxim Matlakov of Russia and Alexander Moiseenko of Ukraine tied for first place at the Moscow Open on Sunday. The two GMs scored 7.0/9 and their tiebreaks turned out to be exactly the same. Polish grandmasters Mateusz Bartel and Mikhail Krasenkow came third and fourth respectively on Buchholz.
The Moscow Open & the 10th RSSU Cup took place 30 January - 9 February at the Russian State Social University (RSCU) in the Russian capital. The big, annual festival consisted of nine different tournaments:
- Tournament A "Cup of Russia among men 2014"
- Tournament B "Cup of Russia Women 2014"
- Tournament C "Cup RSSU chess lovers'
- Tournament D "RSSU Veterans Cup Chess"
- tournament E "RSSU Cup - World Cup of Chess Composition"
- Tournament F "Cup RSSU students - Grandmasters"
- Tournament G "Cup RSSU students (girls) - Grandmasters"
- Tournament H "Champions Cup RSSU schools"
- Moscow Rapid Championship Super Final
Let's start with the latter, which was held at the start: 30-31 January. Alexander Grischuk edged out Evgeny Najer on tiebreak; both finished on 6.5/9. According to the tournament website this two-day rapid event had an impressive prize fund: the two winners each took home 6,056 Euros (US $8,270)! Three players scored 5.5 points: Boris Grachev, Alexander Morozevich and Ivan Popov. Ian Nepomniachtchi followed with 5 points.
The strong open ("group A") was a nine-round Swiss played February 1-9. The time control was 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move one.
After seven rounds there was a group of nine players with 5.5 points: Boris Grachev, Ivan Popov, Pavel Ponkratov, Dmitry Kokarev, Ildar Khairullin, Artur Gabrielian (all Russia) Mateusz Bartel (Poland), Rinat Jumabayev (Kazakhstan) and Alexander Moiseenko (Ukraine). In the penultimate round the top four boards ended in draws, and so it was Ponkratov who grabbed sole lead with the following win:
Ponkratov's reign was short-lived; in the final round he played Alexander Moiseenko on board one and went down in an ending:
Maxim Matlakov also won in the last round to join Moiseenko in first place.
Matlakov and Moiseenko won 8323 Euros each (US $11,363)
Olga Girya, who beat Alexandra Goryachkina in the last round, was the top female player. Yury Balashov won the veterans event, edging out Evgeny Kalegin on tiebreak after both finished on 7.5/9. With a score of 8.0/9 Vladislav Artemyev was clearly the strongest in a round robin tournament for students. Meri Arabidze won the female students’ tournament.
Moscow Open 2014 | Group A | Final Standings (Top 30)
| Rk. | SNo | Title | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | Rp |
| 1-2 | 1 | GM | Moiseenko Alexander | UKR | 2710 | 7 | 50,5 | 5 | 35 | 2719 |
| 1-2 | 2 | GM | Matlakov Maxim | RUS | 2690 | 7 | 50,5 | 5 | 35 | 2730 |
| 3 | 7 | GM | Bartel Mateusz | POL | 2651 | 7 | 50 | 5 | 37 | 2740 |
| 4 | 11 | GM | Krasenkow Michal | POL | 2638 | 7 | 44,5 | 6 | 32,5 | 2646 |
| 5 | 3 | GM | Grachev Boris | RUS | 2669 | 6,5 | 53,5 | 4 | 37,5 | 2713 |
| 6 | 6 | GM | Popov Ivan | RUS | 2653 | 6,5 | 52 | 4 | 36 | 2676 |
| 7 | 17 | GM | Ponkratov Pavel | RUS | 2611 | 6,5 | 51,5 | 5 | 37 | 2682 |
| 8 | 8 | GM | Khairullin Ildar | RUS | 2651 | 6,5 | 49,5 | 4 | 37,5 | 2675 |
| 9 | 23 | GM | Jumabayev Rinat | KAZ | 2564 | 6,5 | 47,5 | 4 | 34,5 | 2607 |
| 10 | 24 | IM | Mozharov Mikhail | RUS | 2564 | 6,5 | 47 | 5 | 32,5 | 2571 |
| 11 | 22 | GM | Shomoev Anton | RUS | 2568 | 6,5 | 46,5 | 4 | 33,5 | 2595 |
| 12 | 20 | GM | Grigoriants Sergey | RUS | 2581 | 6,5 | 46 | 4 | 31,5 | 2571 |
| 13 | 28 | GM | Geller Jakov | RUS | 2536 | 6,5 | 45,5 | 5 | 34 | 2632 |
| 14 | 21 | GM | Frolyanov Dmitry | RUS | 2577 | 6,5 | 45,5 | 4 | 33,5 | 2576 |
| 15 | 34 | GM | Kabanov Nikolai | RUS | 2501 | 6,5 | 43,5 | 5 | 33 | 2605 |
| 16 | 25 | GM | Savchenko Boris | RUS | 2556 | 6,5 | 42 | 5 | 30,5 | 2544 |
| 17 | 16 | GM | Amonatov Farrukh | TJK | 2613 | 6,5 | 42 | 5 | 29,5 | 2562 |
| 18 | 15 | GM | Demchenko Anton | RUS | 2617 | 6,5 | 41,5 | 6 | 28,5 | 2543 |
| 19 | 14 | GM | Volkov Sergey | RUS | 2627 | 6,5 | 40,5 | 6 | 29 | 2552 |
| 20 | 19 | GM | Grigoryan Karen H. | ARM | 2584 | 6,5 | 36,5 | 6 | 25 | 2435 |
| 21 | 13 | GM | Kokarev Dmitry | RUS | 2628 | 6 | 51 | 4 | 35 | 2605 |
| 22 | 12 | GM | Swiercz Dariusz | POL | 2630 | 6 | 50 | 5 | 34,5 | 2627 |
| 23 | 32 | IM | Sivuk Vitaly | UKR | 2507 | 6 | 50 | 4 | 33,5 | 2650 |
| 24 | 45 | FM | Aghasaryan Robert | ARM | 2467 | 6 | 48,5 | 3 | 32,5 | 2614 |
| 25 | 26 | GM | Gabrielian Artur | RUS | 2555 | 6 | 47,5 | 5 | 33 | 2568 |
| 26 | 36 | GM | Khusnutdinov Rustam | KAZ | 2491 | 6 | 47 | 4 | 30,5 | 2521 |
| 27 | 35 | GM | Ajrapetjan Yuriy | UKR | 2495 | 6 | 45,5 | 5 | 32 | 2550 |
| 28 | 4 | GM | Socko Bartosz | POL | 2663 | 6 | 44 | 4 | 30 | 2526 |
| 29 | 27 | GM | Kornev Alexei | RUS | 2539 | 6 | 43,5 | 4 | 30,5 | 2506 |
| 30 | 78 | GM | Yandemirov Valeri | RUS | 2378 | 5,5 | 51,5 | 5 | 31,5 | 2584 |
All photos © Galina Popova courtesy of open.moscowchess.org
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
Peter's first book The Chess Revolution is out now!
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