Inarkiev Reigns Supreme At Moscow Open

It was one of the strongest opens of the year, and one man was in fantastic shape. GM Ernesto Inarkiev won the Moscow Open with a splendid 8.0/9 score.

Inarkiev won the main event of what was a huge festival in the Russian capital, held January 29-February 9. The official name is “the International RSSU Chess Cup,” and it was held for the 11th time this year.

The top group, simply called “tournament A,” consisted of 246 players including dozens of strong grandmasters. GM Ernesto Inarkiev was in fantastic shape and scored 8.0/9, good for a 2931 performance rating!

The 29-year-old Russian grandmaster, who was indeed named after Ernesto "Che" Guevara, finished a full point ahead of GM Anton Korobov (Ukraine), GM Francisco Vallejo Pons (Spain), GM Tigran Petrosian (Armenia) and GM Vladislav Artemiev (Russia). Korobov came second on tiebreak, Vallejo third.

Inarkiev started strongly: he was the only player to win his first four games. His third-round encounter saw a long-term exchange sacrifice — it looked like he lost it, but he had seen deeper:

Inarkiev even moved to 5.0/5 thanks to a Black win against the two-time Ukrainian champion GM Anton Korobov. The latter thought it was time to develop his last piece, and moved his queen's rook to the center just when Black was actually threatening something:

In round six, things didn't go according to plan. Inarkiev escaped with a draw against GM Rauf Mamedov and could easily have lost.

The next day he was back, and in top shape again. GM Ian Nepomniachtchi sacrificed a pawn but didn't get enough play, and didn't have much chance against so many strong blows (24.c5!, 28.Qc6!, 30.Qd7!, 32.Rxe5!, 38.f4!):

The round eight draw with Tigran L. Petrosian should be included as well: a very exciting game:

This way, Inarkiev kept a half-point lead over Petrosian. A group of 14 grandmaster were half a point behind the Armenian GM.

In the all-decisive last round, Inarkiev won yet again. He displayed exemplary endgame technique against the reigning Russian champion, who missed a draw at the end:

2015 Moscow Open | Final Standings (Top 20)

(Full final standings here.)

The “B tournament” was an open tournament for female players only. The Chinese WGM Lei Tingjie also scored 8.0/9, and also finished a full point ahead of the rest.

IM Evgeni Dragomarezkij won the veterans tournament with 7.5/9, half a point more than GM Evgeny Sveshnikov. 

A 10-player round robin for students was won by GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan, who scored 6.0/9 but finished clear first nonetheless. Second came GM Daniil Dubov.

The following nice attacking game was played in this tournament:

IM Irene Kharisma Sukandar won a similar round robin for female students; she finished two points ahead of IM Alina Kashlinskaya.

The festival was held at the Russian State Social University in Moscow. The eight tournaments combined had a total prize fund of 4 million roubles (US $60,780 or € 53,700).