THE INTEREST TO MOSCOW OPEN IN THE WORLD IS GROWING – THE PRESIDENT OF MOSCOW CHESS FEDERATION

Moscow. January 26. INTERFAX — the President of Moscow Chess Federation Vladimir Palikhata stated that the International RSSU Chess Cup Moscow Open 2016, held from January 29 to February 7 in Moscow, is very popular in the world.

«For the Moscow Chess Federation it’s the most important festivity and socially significant event. The number of participants is growing, as well as the interest in the whole world. For us it’s a major tournament. The prize fund isn’t decreasing over the recent years, it’s quite attractive. Today we have participants from 38 countries, which tells us that the interest to the event is growing», — said v. Palikhata during the press-conference on Tuesday in Moscow.

President of the International School Chess Union, tournament director Aleksandr Kostyev informed that the number of participants in 2016 is going to be around 1600 people, including 50 grandmasters. He emphasized that during the last few years the amount of the contribution for the participation in the Cup hasn’t grown.

«For several years already we haven’t risen the amount of the contribution, which is very affordable», — he said.

The rector of the RSSU Natalya Pochinok noted that the best world practices were taken into consideration during the arrangement of the tournament.

«For us, the 12th RSSU Cup is an important and outstanding event. This time we tried to raise the bar in the context of the quality of holding the tournament, increasing the involvement of the students, and in the context of infrastructure. We took into consideration the best world practices of tournament holding. The focal point of attraction of the tournament will be our main events-hall, convenient both for the grandmasters and for the viewers», — she informed.

N. Pochinok told that, as part of the tournament, a class of chess will be held, eligible to be entered into the Guinness Book of Records for the number of participants — 250 individuals.

«This year we aspire to be entered into the Guinness Book of Records. We want to set a world record and give the most large-scale chess lesson. The documentation of the record will be performed on January 29», — she said.

Executive director of the Russian Chess Federation (RCF) Mark Glukhovsky stressed that the massive involvement of Moscow Open can be compared only to that of the Russian Ski Track.

«It’s the most massive tournament in terms of the number of people, it’s one of the most large-scale participation sports events in Russia, the only analogue of which is the Russian Ski Track. And the number of participants grows from year to year. It’s not just a chess tournament, it’s an important social phenomenon, Moscow-wide and Russia-wide», — he noted.

The 12th International RSSU Chess Cup Moscow Open 2016 will be held in the Russian State Social University in Moscow. The guaranteed prize fund of the competition amounts to 4 million 730 thousand rubles. The number of participants in all age groups is around 1600 people. The festival is one of the biggest in terms of the number of participants in the world.

In 2016, the program of the Cup was changed, thus instead of two round-robin tournaments of students-grandmasters one will be held, conducted according to the Swiss system with the personal-team competition, and will become the selection for the world championship among amateurs.

The program of Moscow Open 2016 will be complemented with the RSSU Cup on blitz, which will take place on February 8 after the end of the main tournaments.

As part of the RSSU Chess Cup Moscow Open 2016, FIDE workshops and master classes will be held. The participants of FIDE workshops are awarded the points of a FIDE arbiter and international organizer, and a corresponding certificate is issued.