XIX Voronezh chess festival is in progress! It began with two one-day tournaments – Chess960 (June 10) and Rapid (June 11). Chess960 tournament (7 rounds, 52 players, 12 GM) has been held in Voronezh for 4th time. Chess960 is still not as popular as other chess disciplines, but there are players that participated only in this particular event including GM Andrey Deviatkin (look at his story about Voronezh Chess960 tournament on Chess-news site: http://chess-news.ru/en/node/19250). The event was won by GM Dmitry Bocharov (RUS, Novosibirsk), Russia Blitz Champion 2015. GM Aleksey Goganov (RUS, Sankt-Peterburg) won the Rapid tournament (9 rounds, 130 players, 16 GM) after the 2nd place in Chess960, GM Boris Savchenko (RUS, Krasnodar) was the 2nd in Rapid, IM Mikhail Demidov (RUS, Moscow) finished 3rd in both these tournaments.
Then classical chess events started: Master Open (130 players from 9 countries, 27 GM), FIDE Open (124 players from 6 countries with Elo < 2200) and Sail of Hope tournament for handicapped people (24 players). More than half of these tournaments distance has been already gone, but the decisive games are to be played. Now there are sole leaders in all three these tournaments: GM Andrey Stukopin (RUS, Moscow) in Master Open, Dashgyn Ibadov (RUS, Chita) in FIDE Open, last year winner Evgeny Suslov (RUS, Ivanovo) in Sail of Hope. Blitz tournament will be played today (June 17).
You can find information about the Festival on its site: http://vrnchessfestival.org/en


Chess960 tournament winners: IM Mikhail Demidov (3rd), GM Dmitry Bocharov (1st), GM Aleksey Goganov (2nd)


Rapid tournament: not only a lot of players but a lot of spectators too