Aeroflot Open to Be Held in March 2024 in New Format

The playing venue is The Carlton Hotel, Moscow.

 
We are pleased to announce that the legendary Aeroflot Open comes back next year in a new format.
 
The competition, organised by the Chess Federation of Russia and supported by Aeroflot, is to be held from on 2-8 March, 2024 in one of the most beautiful hotels of the capital city, The Carlton, Moscow. 
 
The Aeroflot Open has run in Moscow since 2002. In 2004, it entered the Guinness Book of Records as the largest mass chess tournament in the world. The annual chess competition has been suspended since 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 
 
This year's tournament will be drastically different from its previous editions. Previously, the Aeroflot Open consisted of three tournaments in which participants were split by rating and played classical chess. At the same time, there has never been a tournament for children. 
 
The programme of the new festival includes a strong open tournament for chess players with a FIDE rating above 2300 and a stage of the Russian Youth Cup, competing in which will be young players not older than 15 years of age. 
 
The opening ceremony is planned on 2 March. Game days: 3-7 March. 
 
The prize pool for the main competition is 15 million rubles, of which the winner will get three million. The children's tournament has the unprecedented prize fund of one million rubles. 
 
President of the Chess Federation of Russia Andrey Filatov, "The end of the year gives us wonderful news: Aeroflot has made a wonderful gift to our chess players of various age categories, including children. The famous international tournament, which has a long tradition, will be resumed, and we thank our partners for this". 
 
Aeroflot CEO Sergey Alexandrovsky, "Supporting sports is one of the priorities of our company's social policy. This applies not only to external sponsorship projects, but also to corporate sports programs. The airline's employees have established a chess club and regularly take part in competitions at various levels. We are pleased to revive the legendary chess festival under the auspices of Aeroflot and wish all participants successful games and more success in the future!"
 
Detailed information and a link for the online registration will be published on our website later.