Botvinnik Cup Starts in Moscow

Tournament held in Cosmos Hotel on August 10-14.

On August 9th, the Cosmos Hotel in Moscow saw an official opening of the Mikhail Botvinnik Open Cup, in which 11 teams from the CIS countries and Georgia are taking part. Team composition: four young players under 14 years old including at least one girl. Each team is headed by a captain - grandmaster or master - who gives a simultaneous exhibition with clock to the opposing team's juniors. This formula was used in the Soviet Union in well-known competitions of Pioneers' Palaces; the sixth world champion Mikhail Botvinnik was the chief arbiter of the first tournament with this system.

The following teams participate in the 2018 event: Azerbaijan (captain Urfan Sevdimaliyev), Armenia (Rafael Vaganian), Belarus (Vladislav Kovalev), Georgia (Luka Paichadze), Kazakhstan (Rustam Khusnutdinov), Kyrgyzstan (Semetey Tologontegin), Moldova (Viktor Komliakov), Tajikistan (Muhammad Khusenkhojaev), Turkmenistan (Maksat Atabayev), and Uzbekistan (Vladimir Egin). Rating favorite is the Russian team, which is represented by Valery Skatchkov, Andrey Tsvetkov, Dmitry Kirillov, and Leya Garifullina; captain - grandmaster Alexey Korotylev. 

Tournament Director Alexander Bakh and Chief Arbiter Alexander Ivanov greeted young chess players and captains at the opening ceremony. All participants were given presents.  

The tournament is played according to the Swiss system with 7 rounds. Time control: 90 minutes for all moves in all his games, with a 30-second increment from move 1. 

The event is organized by the Association of Chess Federations with support of the Intergovernmental Foundation for Educational, Scientific and Cultural Cooperation of the CIS (IFESCCO). General sponsor is Infinitum group of companies.  

Tournament on Chess-Results

Official website and games online

Photos by Vladimir Barsky