The International Chess Festival “Moscow Open 2013″ is taking place from 31st January to 11th February, 2013, at the Russian State Social University (RSSU), B. Pick Street, 4, metro station “Botanical Garden” in Moscow.
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Live games: Live games Moscow Open 2013 / Live games Students Grandmaster Cup
Participants: Moscow Open 2013 / Moscow Open 2013 women / Young Grandmasters tournament / Young Grandmasters tournament for women
A nice case of symmetry has presented itself in the Moscow Open festival: both groups have four leaders after four rounds, all with a perfect score of 4/4. GM Mamedov, GM Adhiban, GM Ponkratov, and GM Ibragimov lead the open section, leaders in the women section are IM Ovod, IM Romanko, FM Stetsko, and WFM Tomnikova.
During Moscow Open round 3 the Indian players had the misfortune of being paired against each other in two of the top boards; today, once again, two of the three perfect-scorers were paired against each other. B. Adhiban proved that he is in good shape and beat the Gibraltar finalist Chanda Sandipan with the Black pieces. Sandipan had a decent advantage throughout the game, but was not able to bring the point home. Adhiban defended fiercely and eventually turned the tables to score his 4th straight win. He will face the Russian GM Pavel Ponkratov in tomorrow’s fifth round.
The strong match-ups on the top boards are a fact, and a 22-move victory on the first board is certainly a surprise at this stage. That is exactly what GM Rauf Mamedov did: the Azerbaijani trapped Alexandre Danin’s queen in the middle of the board. The game started as a French Defense with the black bishop on g7. The white pieces threatened a direct attack against the black king, and by doing so, took strong centralized positions on the board. With the black light-squared bishop totally useless on c8, it did not take too long for white to win the point; this positional advantage materialized when the black queen found itself trapped on d7. The Russian resigned immediately.
The other players who joined on the top postion are the American GM Ildar Ibragimov, who defeated Illya Nyzhnyk, and the Russian GM Pavel Ponkratov, who outplayed the Indian V.R. Venkatesh on the 4th board.
Moscow Open – Standings after 4 rounds:
| 1 | GM | Mamedov Rauf | AZE | – | 2651 | – | 4.0 | |
| GM | Ibragimov Ildar | USA | – | 2555 | – | 4.0 | ||
| 3 | GM | Ponkratov Pavel | RUS | – | 2584 | – | 4.0 | |
| 4 | GM | Adhiban B. | IND | – | 2547 | – | 4.0 | |
| 5 | GM | Nepomniachtchi Ian | RUS | – | 2703 | – | 3.5 | |
| GM | Kovalenko Igor | UKR | – | 2586 | – | 3.5 | ||
| 7 | GM | Panarin Mikhail | RUS | – | 2552 | – | 3.5 | |
| 8 | GM | Kokarev Dmitry | RUS | – | 2635 | – | 3.5 | |
| GM | Svetushkin Dmitry | MDA | – | 2612 | – | 3.5 | ||
| 10 | GM | Yilmaz Mustafa | TUR | – | 2531 | – | 3.5 | |
| 11 | IM | Goganov Aleksey | RUS | – | 2550 | – | 3.5 | |
| IM | Hayrapetyan Hovik | ARM | – | 2500 | – | 3.5 | ||
| 13 | GM | Chernobay Artem | RUS | – | 2499 | – | 3.5 | |
| 14 | GM | Maletin Pavel | RUS | – | 2571 | – | 3.5 | |
| IM | Vidit Santosh Gujrathi | IND | – | 2546 | – | 3.5 | ||
| 16 | GM | Gopal G.N. | IND | – | 2545 | – | 3.5 | |
| 17 | FM | Meribanov Vitaly | BLR | – | 2426 | – | 3.5 |
Why no top players?