The 16th traditional International Chess Festival “Aeroflot Open 2018” will take place from 19th February to 2nd March 2018, in Moscow, Russia.
As usual, the event will consist of three competitions: A, B and C for players rated 2549 and more, 2299-2550 and 2300 and less, respectively. The event will be played in one of the largest hotels of Moscow, Hotel Cosmos, which will be the official playing venue of all the events.
Besides the regular Open events, in addition to the Aeroflot Open tournaments, the blitz tournament will be organized and will take place on 1st of March, the last day of the event.
This time, the very popular festival throughout the world has reached the total prize fund of 140.000 EUR. The first place of the prestigious A event will worth 18.000 EUR. Besides the regular prizes, organizers provided special prizes for the best women players, best juniors and best seniors.
Until today, 72 players from 21 federations registered for the A competition, while B and C open tournaments gathered 96 and 61 players, respectively. Among the top players of the A event, there are three 2700+ rated players: Andreikin Dmitry (RUS, 2712), Mamedov Rauf (AZE, 2709) and Matlakov Maxim (RUS, 2709). Besides them, many other top Grand masters will compete in the Championship, such as: Artemiev Vladislav (RUS 2697), Inarkiev Ernesto (RUS, 2684), Najer Evgeniy (RUS, 2683), Kamsky Gata (USA, 2677), Sargissian Gabriel (ARM 2677), Motylev Alexander (RUS, 2673), Sasikiran Krishnan (IND, 2671) etc.
All events will be played in 9 games, Swiss system, with time control for the A tournament: 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 50 minutes for the next 20 moves and 15 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from the first move, time control for the B tournament: 90 minutes for the first 40 moves and 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from the first, and C tournament time control: 90 minutes for the whole game with an increment of 30 seconds per move from the first. The participants must keep the record of moves till the end of the game.
The event is organized by “Aeroflot-Russian Airlines”, the Russian Chess Federation and the Association of Chess Federations.