Echesspedia

One of the strongest Open tournaments since the beginning of the 21st century organized by Alexander Bakh and his team in Moscow and generously co-sponsored by the Russian airline company Aeroflot. The festival is divided into 3 Opens. The total number of participants regularly reached 500 players with a prize fund of US$ 200,000.

The winners were: 2002, Gregory Kaidanov, 2003 Viktor Bologan, 2004 Sergei Rublevsky, 2005 Emil Sutovsky, 2006 Baadur Jobava, 2007 Evgeny Alekseev, 2008 Ian Nepomniachtchi, 2009 Etienne Bacrot, 2010 Liem Le Quang, 2011 Liem Le Quang.

The Chief Organizer Alexander Bakh (left) and Alexander Roshal, former chief editor of the chess magazine 64 (right), with former World Champion Vassily Smyslov in 2004.