The first two rounds were played in the National Student Chess League Cup. The remarkable thing is that this competition is held for the 5th time as a part of Moscow Open. This year it hosts the participants from nine countries including five International Masters and twenty two FIDE Masters. In total, 97 chess players, 59 boys and 38 girls toed the starting line.

The rating favourites that take part in the tournament are International Masters Alexandr Triapishko (2510, Simferopol) and Semen Khanin (2500, Novosibirsk region). They will be competing with David Shapiro (2388, Samara region), Arsen Kukhmazov (2377, Moscow), Ilya Chekletsov (2372, Sverdlovsk region), Timofey Smitnov (2360, Moscow) and Danil Najdin (2359, Rostov region) etc.

The president of the Moscow Chess Federation Sergey Lazarev in his interview to “Sport-express” talked about the largest Moscow tournament and the goals for the forthcoming year.

– The International RSSU Cup Moscow Open is a chess festival, that includes rating competitions among professionals, competitions among children and also veterans older than 75. Apart from this, the event will be methodological since it will host arbiter seminars as well as experience exchange among professionals. Every year we introduce some innovations and events during the tournament trying to improve the quality of the organization. And this year there will be and intense and busy programme. We have been preparing this event for more than 3 months and now we are entering the final straight.

The additional programme of the International RSSU Cup Moscow Open traditionally includes many courses and seminars for continuing development of arbiters. Today saw the beginning of the FIDE seminar for international arbiters that will last for two days - January 25 and 26.

The seminar is held in the walls of the RSSU for the second time and is coordinated by an international arbiter and organizer from Russia - Alexander Tkachev, and an international arbiter and organizer Vadim Tsypin from Canada. 

It is noteworthy that every year the additional programme of the festival expands and become more versatile. The next few days will see professional development courses, FIDE seminars for arbiters and organizers, lectures of a famous Grandmaster Aleksey Dreev, an International conference “Integration of chess in the education system” and other events.

The formal opening of the RSSU Chess Cup Moscow Open 2020 was held on Friday, January 24 in the Hall of the Russian State Social University.

The ceremony opened with a performance of the Russian folk orchestra of the Moscow State Institute of Music named after Schnittke “Moscow” with a potpourri of popular folk songs from all over the world as well as a gymnastics show “Da Vinchi – mirror ring”. This was followed by the greetings from the organizers and honorary guests of the festival of the participants and guests.

The first deputy head of the  Moscow Department of Sports, the Olympic Ice Skating Champion Svetlana Bazhanova wished all the participants luck and victory. “I hope this tournament will bring you many interesting games that you will remember for the rest of your life, and will become your beacon in the world of big sports”, said Svetlana Valerievna. 

City Sightseeing Russia and the Moscow chess Federation offer participants of the Moscow Open 2020 chess festival a program of excursions around Moscow on Double-Decker buses.

City Sightseeing is world leading Hop-On Hop-Off bus tour operator. The company was established in 1998 in Spain. Starting from one bus, one tour since then it has grown to more than 100 locations in 35 countries worldwide.

This company together with Moscow Chess Federation organizes city tours on double-decker buses as a part of the additional program of the XVI international RSSU Cup Moscow Open.

The special price with the 20% off for one excursion is provided for all participants of The Moscow Open 2020 from January 23th 2020 from February 4th 2020.

Dear festival participants!

Please note that prior to the competition you have to undergo an accreditation process at the game venue. It will take place in the building 8 of the RSSU, office 316.

The participant accreditation for Children and Student Tournaments will be held on January 23 from 12pm to 7pm; the participant accreditation for the rest of the tournaments – January 24 from 12pm to 8pm.

The participant registration for children’s blitz tournament is compulsory for everyone and will be held on January 23 from 12pm to 3pm. You will be able to pay the tournament fee at the same venue.

In 2020 Russia commemorates the 75th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War. The tournaments among veterans will be dedicated to this date and will be traditionally held as a part of the International RSSU Cup Moscow Open.  At the same time the programme of this competition was significantly modified.

All the tournaments, as before, will be held with a classic time control. For the first time the main tournament (D1) will be held with participation of the chess players aged 50 or older. Previously the age bar was set at the age of 60. The participants of this tournament will play 9 rounds. Apart from the main prizes there will be ones for the players of the age of 65 or older. 

For the first time there will be a tournament “Victory contemporaries” (D2). 

More than 2000 chess players applied to participate in the XVI International RSSU Chess Cup Moscow Open 2020, with 40 grandmasters among them.

Boris Grachev (2614, Moscow) and Anastasia Bodnaruk (2411, St.Petersburg) are at the head of the list of the Russian Cup stages, main tournaments of the festival. With that in mind, the Moscow Grandmaster has never won this competition yet, while the chess player from the Northern capital won the Moscow Open twice – in 2018 and 2019.

Grachev will be competing in the men’s tournament with: Aleksei Pridorozhni (2601, Surgut), Manuel Petrosyan (2590, Armenia), Artyom Timofeev (2588, Kazan), Sergey Volkov (2575, Saransk), last year tournament winner Boris Savchenko (2573, Moscow) etc.

Aleksey Dreev, the three-time winner of the World Chess Olympiad as a member of the Russian National team will hold open master classes as a part of the additional programme of the XVI International RSSU Cup Moscow Open 2020. The classes will be held on January 30, 31 and February 1 from 12.30hs to 3pm. 

The grandmaster will cover:

- how to calculate variations correctly;
- how to minimize mistakes in move choices and calculation of variations;
- how to prepare to face your competitor;
- how to get rid of  template thinking;
- and much more…

Open all-Russian individual / team National Student Chess League Championship will be presented during the XVI International Chess Cup Moscow Open 2020 from January 24th to February 2nd.

This is the tournament for students and graduate students, for Bachelor, Master, PhD students enrolled in full-time university-level programs and graduates of the universities with higher national diplomas obtained in 2019.

The age of participants should be under 25 years on January 1, 2020 (born in 1995 or younger).

The all participants must have sport rank or title in chess or Russian or international rating.

Two individual tournaments (for men and women) and team tournament (male student, female student) will be held as a part of the chess Cup. 

The joint (international and national) arbiter’sa chess seminar will be held on January 27, 28, and 29 as a part of the additional programme of the XVI International RSSU Cup Moscow Open 2020.

The international seminar will be held in Russian and officially registered in the FIDE.

The coordinator of the seminar – Alexander Tkachev, International Arbiter, FIDE lecturer, sports referee of a national category (Moscow).

The seminar is open to Russian chess arbiters of the third, second, first and national (republican, union) category, chess players without an arbiter category but having an ELO rating or Russian chess rating of 2000 or above as well as foreaign citizens willing to obtain FIDE arbiter points.

The Seminar for the international Organizers will be held as a Part of the RSSU Chess Cup Moscow Open Programm

The training seminar for the international organizers will be held as a part of the additional program of the XVI international RSSU Cup Moscow Open 2020 from January 31st  to February 1st . Everyone who claim to receive the international organizer point can take part in the work of the seminar. Event language is Russian.

Main lecturer is Vadim Tsypin (Canada), FIDE lecturer (Cond.), international arbiter/international organizer. His assistant is Alexander Tkachev (Russia), FIDE lecturer, head of the RCF technical directorate, international arbiter/international organizer.