Tashir Chess begins in Moscow with Liren, Leko, Aronian, Grischuk, Inarkiev, Gelfand, Morozevich, Kramnik

Hello chess blog friends, the Tashir Chess Interntional as begun in memory of chess great Tigran Petrosian in Moscow. The opening ceremony was held on November 3 in the Novotel Moscow City Hotel. The organizers of the tournament are the Tashir group of companies and the Russian Chess Federation. The colorful ceremony was attended by well-known businessmen, sportsmen, cultural figures, the owner of the Tashir group Mr. Samvel Karapetian, member of the RCF supervisory board, businessman Mr. Gennady Timchenko, the President of FIDE Mr. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the President of RCF Mr. Andrey Filatov, businessmen Mr. Oleg Skvortsov, Director General of CCIRF, RCF Vice-President Mr. Pavel Shinsky, famous basketball player Sergey Panov, world champions in modern pentathlon Sergey Karyakin and Alexandr Lesun. 

In attendamce were also elite chessplayers of the world: the world’s eldest grandmaster Yuri Lvovich Averbach, RCF President’s adviser Alexandr Grigoryevich Bach, Merited Coaches of the USSR Anatoly Avraamovich Bykhovsky and Mark Israilevich Dvoretsky, grandmasters Sergey Karjakin, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Sergey Yanovsky, Yury Dokhoian, Evgeniy Najer, Valentina Gunina, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Olga Girya, Svetlana Matveeva and many others.

The ceremony was hosted by film director, actor and TV anchor Tigran Keosaian.

During the opening ceremony the film “The Iron Tigran” about Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian was demonstrated; then the legend of Armenian chess, grandmaster Rafael Vaganian, informed the audience of the book “T. Petrosian’s Chess Lectures” that had been reprinted by the Tashir group of companies in honor of the present tournament.

The President of FIDE Mr. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov greeted the audience and awarded the T. Petrosian Medal to the Chief Arbiter of the tournament Boris Postovsky (USA) for his outstanding coaching achievements in the past.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov said: “On the part of the FIDE Presidential Council let me congratulate participants and guests of the Tashir International Tigran Petrosian Chess Memorial. For this event we must thank the organizers of the tournament – the Russian Chess Federation and the Tashir group of companies. Tigran Petrosian holds a special place among the world champions, and I am sure that the participants will bring a real holiday to the lovers of chess.”

The President of RCF Andrey Filatov thanked the Tashir group of companies for a new Moscow chess tournament with participation of strongest grandmaster of our planet: “I am happy for the ever-increasing number of chess sponsors in the world, and the Tashir group of companies is one of them. I hope that the present tournament will bring us outstanding games, the best of which will go down in the history of chess.”

Then the guests could watch a video in which sculptor Georgiy Frangulian tells about the grand prize to be awarded to the winner of the competition – a bronze figurine of Nike holding a laurel wreath in her hands.

And after that Chief Arbiter Boris Postovsky held the pairings. The start numbers of players were as follows: 1. Ding Liren, 2. Peter Leko, 3. Levon Aronian, 4. Alexander Grischuk, 5. Ernesto Inarkiev, 6. Boris Gelfand, 7. Alexander Morozevich, 8. Vladimir Kramnik.

Follow the action live at the official website.

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