Azerbaijani chess players succeeding in Aeroflot Open 2013 International Tournament

Baku, February 13 (AZERTAC). Azerbaijani chess players are successfully competing in a chess tournament “Aeroflot OPEN — 2013” dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the leading Russian airline company, starting from February 11 till 18 in Moscow.

In qualifying rapid tournament, Azerbaijani chess player Rauf Mammadov scored 4 points after the four games, while Gadir Huseynov scored 3.5 and Vasif Durarbayli 2.5 points respectively.

The first qualifying tournament brought together 300 chess players from more than 20 countries.

On February 14, 2013 mass open blitz tournament will start (Swiss system, 9 double rounds). Among participants there will be eight invited chess stars — World Blitz champion Alexander Grischuk, World Cup winner Peter Svidler, Russian champion Dmitry Andreikin, World Rapid champion Sergey Karjakin, Russia`s and Europe`s 2010 champion Yan Nepomnyaschiy and FIDE 2012 Grand Prize stage winners Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan) and Wan Hao (China).

On February 15, 32 players who qualified on February 12-13 will face each other in a knockout tournament. On the same day the invited stars will play with 90 young amateur chess players.

February 16-17 will be the days of Grand Final with 8 invited chess stars and 8 qualified players.

The Closing Ceremony will be on February 17, 2013.

“Aeroflot OPEN” is held for the 12th time and the quantity of tournament participants is a spoken legend in the chess world. The history of the festival starts in 2002, and in 2004 it was rated by Guinness World Records as the chess tournament with the highest quantity of participants. At this time the Festival Committee has received the record number of entry requests and the registration is closed by now.

Sponsored by Aeroflot and organized by the Russian Chess Federation, this international festival is attracting a lot of amateur and professional chess players from all over the world.