In the concluding examination we will go over three decisive duels of the ninth round, determining the victors of the men's and women's Moscow Open 2014 Premier Russian Cup!

Four grandmasters have shown the best results at the Moscow Open 2014, Men’s Premier Cup: Alexander Moiseenko (Ukraine), Maxim Matlakov (Russia), Mateusz Bartel and Michal Krasenkow (both from Poland) earned 7 of 9 possible points. The current European Champion Moiseenko and one of the strongest chess players of St. Petersburg Matlakov are favored by the tie- break rules. In fact, all three of the tie-breaking criteria are equal. As a result both grandmasters became the winners of the tournament.

Junior Champion of Russia, 15-year old Vladislav Artemiev from Omsk became a winner of the Men’s Student Grandmaster Cup. These competitions were held according to the round-robin system with the participation of 10 chess players. The young player lost only one point in nine rounds. He has a two-point lead over silver medalist Muscovite Andrey Stukopin. The third place is taken by another representative of Moscow Vladimir Belous. He also gained 6 points but the tie-break rules placed him in fourth place.

The famous muscovite Grandmaster Yuri Balashov takes gold in the Senior Tournament. Having 7.5 points he beat International Master Evgenij Kalegin, with the same number of points, on tie-break rules.

Four participants earned half a point less. The tie-break rules provided Arkadi Vul (Moscow) with the bronze medal. Poor results in tie-break criteria prevented famous Grandmaster Evgeny Sveshnikov (Latvia), FIDE Masters Oleg Zilbert (Moscow) and Valentin Artyushikhin (Kostroma) from making the prize list. They all had 7 points.

Olga Girya won the first place at the Moscow Open 2014, Russian Women’s Premier Cup. She managed to win the games in the last two rounds. The Russian chess player gained 7.5 of 9 possible points. Seven chess players are half a point behind her. Tie-break rules placed Daria Charochkina second and Baira Kovanova third (both players representing Russia).

Alina Kashlinskaya, Anastasia Bodnaruk (both representing Russia), Ekaterina Atalik (Turkey), Ekaterina Semenova (Russia) and Nino Batsiashvili (Georgia) are behind the prize winners’ line. The players are placed in this succession in the final chart according to tie-break rules.

17-year old candidate masters from Tula is the winner of the tournament with the highest number of participants – the RSSU Amateurs’ Cup. He lost only half a point in the nine rounds. Andrei Gurbanov (Belarus) with 8 points took second place. Pavel Toporov (Tatarstan) with 7.5 points is the third.

14 players are half a point behind the prize winners’ line. All of them have earned 7 points.

After the calm before the storm of the last two rounds, the eighth was unusually decisive and rich with interesting games. We narrowed our choice down to one of high entertainment value: from the key duels in the Women's Premier Russian Cup Olga Girya - Alina Kashlinskaya.

In the course of three days, from Feb 5 to Feb 7 the master-classes for coaches under the aegis of Alexander Kalinin were held within the frames of the Moscow Open 2014, RSSU Cup. We asked the grandmaster to tell us about this event.

- The Moscow Open celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Have master-classes for coaches become a traditional part of it?
- As far as I know they don’t have a status of being tradition yet. We started creating the tradition last year when Mark Dvoretsky addressed to the participants of the master-classes, - Alexander says.

It’s great that every year people from all over the world come to visit the Moscow Open, RSSU Cup. They come to take part, enjoy the event, get acquainted with the Russian chess culture and receive experience that organizers and participants of the festival are always ready to share with foreign guests. Chess organizer from Italy Ludwig Rettore hasn’t missed the Moscow Open for seven consecutive years. In the course of these years he managed to learn Russian quite good.

- Good afternoon, Ludwig. Tell us about yourself.
- Good afternoon. That’s true I’ve been visiting Moscow for 7 times in a row, I come here every year. I’m a chess organizer in Italy. 

International grandmaster from Voronezh Alexander Raetsky is well-known as for being a strong chess player so as for being an international arbiter for more than 13 years. Since 1998 he has been the main organizer of the Voronezh Open festival (tournament devoted to the memory of Alekhin). Alexander is the head arbiter of the Russian Premier Cup. We just couldn’t miss a chance to ask him several questions.

- Alexander the first question is our favorite one: how many times have you come to the Moscow Open?
- It’s my third time as a head arbiter. Once I was officiating the Student Grandmaster tournament, and the Russian Men’s Premier Cup at the last two tournaments.

The jubilee tournament has become a significant one from all points of view – the number of participants, amount of the prize fund is amazing. Every young chess player of the Moscow Open 2014 proved that chess is not only a kind of sport but it’s also the art. You should have special skills to win and to gain more experience in case of failure.

The RSSU communication department prepared a video showing the awarding ceremony of the winners and medalists of the Moscow Open, RSSU School Champions’ Cup. 

The battle in the open tournaments has come to a decisive stage. The struggle among the group of leaders is going heavy and stubborn, with a great many draws. The game Yuriy Ajrapetjan – Dmitry Kokarev is characteristic of the closing conflicts. Without any special effects, the faceoff was filled with internal tension.

The Moscow Open, RSSU International Chess Cup is a unique festival where a great game of chess unites people of different ages, professions, male and female, children of preschool age and veterans, professionals and amateurs, grandmasters and beginners. We were talking to the youngest and the oldest participants of the tournament. The age difference between them is 83 years. 

The youngest one: Makar Domrachev (Moscow)

- Hello Makar. How old are you?
- Hello! I’m five years and three months.