Aeroflot Open 2016 – best games and final result
While the chess world begins to turn its attention to the Candidates Tournament which has just begun, yesterday took place the prize ceremony of the super strong Aeroflot Open 2016. With nearly 300 participants, divided into three categories, played in Moscow, the “Chess Mecca”, the 14th edition of Aeroflot is one of the toughest open tournaments in the world.
[Fasten your seat belts!]
And of course the biggest attraction of the event was the strong field playing in Group “A”. In the main event, with some exceptions, only players above 2550 are accepted. The list this year was headed by veteran Boris Gelfand (2735), followed by Chinese Bu Xiangzhi (2724), Wei Yi (2714), Anton Korobov (2713) and Ian Nempomniachtchi (2704). We could also mention: Maxim Matlakov (2682), Ernesto Inarkiev (2677) Paco Vallejo (26677), Baadur Jobava (2676), Vladislav Artemiev (2674), Kata Kambsy (2668), etc.
Favorites Suffer
To get an idea of how tough the tournament is, Chinese prodigy Wei Yi, number three in the tournament, lost to the European champion of 2011 and analyst of several elite GMs, the russian Vladimir Potkin (2585) – who played a small theoretical bomb on move 9. From move 12 onwards the position was nearly irrational and both players made mistakes, but the last one came fron the young chinese. GM Rafael Leitão analyzed this game and you can watch it here.
Anyway, Wei Yi saw was avenged by his compatriot Wen Yang, who beat the Russian promise Vladislav Armetiev (2673) in spectacular fashion. And more than a vengeance, this was perhaps the best game of the tournament. Check the analysis.
Brilliant performance from Axel Bachmann
Another player who suffered in the tournament was the top GM Anton GM Korobov. The Ukrainian had three defeats. Two of them were pretty: against GM Paraguayan Axel Bachmann (2609), who did a great tournament, and beat Korobov in the fifth round; the other was during the eighth round against German GM Matthias Bluebaum (2605). Both games can be seen here and here, respectively.
Najer champion, Gelfand second and Bartel third
But speaking about good things, the tournament was won by the 38 year old russian Evgeniy Najer, current European champion. Showing a chess not only energetic, but full of fight – like draw in the last round against Gata Kamsky, when it seemed that Najer was in real danger. The second place went to the experienced Boris Gelfand. Gelfand, after a slow start, showed very solid and determined chess. An example was his game from round 6 which lasted 119 moves. In the last round, Gelfand’s game was the penultimate to finish, after 79 moves. The third place went to Polish Mateusz Bartel (2625) – a small surprise.
[Bartel, Gelfand and Najer:
“Hey, kid, stop posing. I am the star in here! “]
SOURCES:
Written by Team Chess Academy Rafael Leitão 12/03/2016
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