The 17th International Chess Festival "Aeroflot Open 2019" was officially opened in Cosmos Hotel in Moscow on February 18. RCF Executive Director Mark Glukhovsky, Tournament Director Alexander Bakh, and Chief Arbiter Andrzej Filipowicz greeted participants and guests.

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 saw 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.

During drawing of colors, the top seed of the main tournament Wei Yi (China) drew a black pawn, giving all players in all groups with odd numbers Black in the first round.

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 winner of Aeroflot Open 2017 Vladimir Fedoseev (Russia), well-known Chinese players Wei Yi and Wang Hao, World rapid champion 2018 Daniil Dubov (Russia), winner of Aeroflot Open 2018 Vladislav Kovalev (Belarus), European blitz champion 2015 Rauf Mamedov (Azerbaijan, 2709), European champion 2016 Ernesto Inarkiev (Russia, 2684), and many others.

In general, more than 100 players from 22 countries will take part in the A tournament. The winner of the main tournament 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.

The match days: February 19-27.

Official website