XX Voronezh International Chess Festival

XX Voronezh International Chess festival is in progress! It traditionally takes place in Voronezh from June 10 to June 21. The programme is also traditional: three one day tournaments (Chess960, Rapid and Blitz) and three classical chess tournaments (Master Open for players with Elo >2200, FIDE Open for players with Elo <= 2200 and Sail of Hope for handicapped people).

Players from 10 countries and several dozens of Russia regions are participating in Voronezh festival events this year. There are many players from Uzbekistan, Mongolia, India, Ukraine.

Two events (Chess960 and Rapid) are already over. IM Zhamsaran Tsydypov (RUS, Ulan-Ude) who is in Voronezh for the first time, won the Chess960 tournament by tie-break. GM Pavel Ponkratov (RUS, Chelyabinsk) who previously won different Voronezh tournaments including Master Open, grabbed the sole first place in Rapid tournament – 8 points in 9 games.

Today there are second rounds in Master Open (124 participants, 26 GM, 1 WGM, 25 IM, 1 WIM, 30 FM, 5 WFM) and FIDE Open (138 participants, 5 FM, 1 WFM, 3 WCM, 1 AGM) and the first round in Sail of Hope tournament.

Festival site http://vrnchessfestival.org/en/ contains various info and links concerning pairings, results, online games, winners, photos, videos, etc.