14 February 2019

Aeroflot Open 2019 Starts in Moscow on February 18

Many strong grandmasters to play.


A traditional International Chess Festival "Aeroflot Open 2019", traditionally supported by Aeroflot, will be held in Moscow on 18-28 February. The venue is Cosmos Hotel. One of the oldest and most popular open tournaments, which attracts strong chess players, will be held for the 17th time.

As usually, the competition will consist of three groups according to the rating of the participants - А (2549 and more), B (2299-2550) и C (2300 and less). Participants of all the groups will play 9 rounds according to the Swiss system.

The main tournament is headed by many strong players, such as the winner of Aeroflot Open 2017 Vladimir Fedoseev (Russia), well-known Chinese players Wei Yi and Wang Hao, the winner of Aeroflot Open 2018 Vladislav Kovalev (Belarus), the European blitz champion 2015 Rauf Mamedov (Azerbaijan, 2709), the European champion 2016 Ernesto Inarkiev (Russia, 2684), and many others.

In general, more than 90 players from 21 countries will take part in the A tournament. The winner of the main event will qualify to the super tournament in Dortmund (12–23 July, 2019).

Special prizes for seniors, women, and juniors (amounting to EUR 2500) will be set as well; a participant can be rewarded only with one (the highest) prize. The festival has a guaranteed prize fund amounting to EUR 120,000.

The organizers are Aeroflot, the Russian Chess Federation, and the Association of Chess Federations.

Aeroflot Open is considered to be the most representative open tournament in the world. In 2004, the festival entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the event with the biggest number of grandmasters participating in it. In the recent years, the tournament has seen such chess starts as Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Alexander Grischuk, Levon Aronian, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Sergey Karjakin, Hikaru Nakamura, Peter Svidler, Boris Gelfand, and many others. 

The match days: February 19-27. 

Tournament page

Official website