A sole leader appeared in the main tournament of the festival – the Moscow Open 2014, the Men’s Premier Cup. It’s Russian grandmaster Pavel Ponkratov. He managed to beat Bartosz Socko (Poland) in the eighth round. 13 players are chasing the leader. The rating favorite, European champion Alexander Moiseenko (Ukraine) is among them. The key game of the ninth round between Moiseenko and Ponkratov will be held at the first board. The Ukrainian chess player will be playing with the white.

There are six leaders in the Women’s Premier Cup. Leader Alina Kashlinskaya (Russia) suffered a loss from the compatriot Olga Girya in the eighth round. Now she has to prove her superiority again.

The awarding ceremony of the winners of the children’s tournament of the festival, the RSSU School Champions Cup was held on Saturday, Feb 8 in the assembly hall of the Russian State Social University. More than 700 children of 5 to 15 years old were competing in the course of nine days in the hospitable social university for the prizes that will give them a right to advance to the European School Championship that will be held this summer in Greece. 

The game Alexander Moiseenko – Kirill Alekseenko from the 6th round of Moscow Open 2014 Men's Premier Russian Cup is of theoretical significance. The victory allowed rating favorite to close the gap to the group of leaders. 

Every year hundreds of chess players are waiting for February to start so they can come back to the Wilhelm Pieck street and take part in the Moscow Open 2014, the RSSU Cup. Muscovites and guests of the Russian capital love the festival. Not only famous athletes and well-known grandmasters but also chess amateurs, colleagues and friends get together for ten days.

Another annual, the anniversary edition of the festival is soon to be over. The award ceremonies of the Moscow Open 2014 winners will be held on Feb 8 and 9. All the organizers of the tournament hope that it will be remembered by every participant throughout their lives.

The name of a young Omsk chess player Vladislav Artemiev has started to appear more often in the chess and sports media over the last few years. Being a Champion of Russia in junior competitions, triumphant of the Young World Stars tournament, two-time prize winner of the World Junior Olympiads as a member of the Russian National Team, Vladislav os showing astonishing results in adult tournaments. At the moment the 15-year old player from Omsk has the best results in the Moscow Open 2014, Student Grandmaster Cup. This makes 6.5 of possible 7 points.

- Vladislav, we congratulate you for yet another victory. I get the impression this tournament is very easy for you.
- Thank you. Still this impression is wrong. Though I have to admit the things are good at the moment. I hope this will continue. I have to win as the opponents don’t want to remain behind.

The participants of the Moscow Open 2014, the RSSU Chess Cup tournaments have only two more rounds to play. The names of the winners will be announced the day after tomorrow. At the moment Alina Kashlinskaya is leading in the Women’s Premier Cup 2014. After six victories the Moscow chess player had a draw in her game against Anastasia Bodnaruk from St. Petersburg. Now she has 6.5 points. 11 athletes are 1 point behind the leader. Kashlinskaya will have to play with Olga Girya (Russia) in the eighth round of the competitions.

None of the players have managed to take lead in the Men’s Premier Cup. Nine chess players show the best results – 5.5 of  7 possible points.

The competitions of the Moscow Open chess festival have broken the half-way point. The battle has become tense as the main contendents are starting to face each other off. Here is where the number of draws increases as well as … mutal errors. Of the round 5 games with a result, our annotator examined the faceoff between D. Swiercz (Poland) and P. Vishnu (India).

Olga Girya has become a very interesting person to talk to thanks to her outstanding results. She has a 100% result over the distance of four rounds. We had agreed upon a meeting but the Moscow chess player suffered a loss in a very tough game against Daria Charochkina in the fifth round. The game lasted for more than 5 hours. For that reason we couldn’t bring ourselves to bother the player with a conversation. Olga was one of the players who finished the game very quickly, maybe for the first time during the tournament. We saw her watching the games of her opponents and couldn’t miss a chance to talk to the chessplayer.

Two thirds of the distance in the main tournaments of the Moscow Open 2014, the RSSU International Cup is over. These are the sole leaders in two of the tournaments. Alina Kashlinskaya shows a 100% result at the Russian Women’s Premier Cup, winning all 6 games. 7 runner-ups are 1 point behind the leader. 

The participants of the Russian Men’s Premier Cup are acting more cautiously. Of the first ten boards, only one finished with a decisive result. Rinat Jumabayev (Kazakhastan) beat Xu Yinglun (China). Five grandmasters show the best result – 5 out of 6 points. 

We are continuing to talk to chess players representing various foreign countries at the Moscow Open 2014, RSSU Cup. Now we are meeting the grandmaster from Poland Mateusz Bartel. It’s significant that the increased interest of the representatives of Poland to our festival this year has become a reason of our reciprocal interest to the players themselves. Mateusz just had to give us a good reason to initiate the talk. And he fulfilled the task brilliantly by advancing to the leading group of the Men’s A tournament after five rounds.

The arbiters’ seminar was held in the course of four days from Feb 2 to Feb 5 as part of the Moscow Open 2014. The seminar have become a great tradition of the festival. This year the arbiters advanced their level under the supervision of the head arbiter of the RSSU Men’s and Women’s Student Grandmaster Cup, International Arbiter Anrzej Filipowicz and the Moscow Open Deputy Director, International Arbiter Artem Akhmetov. Yesterday the participants passed the exam and the event was summed up.

Moscow chess players Alina Kashlinskaya and Daria Charochkina keep 100% results at the Moscow Open 2014, Russian Women’s Premier Cup. They've won all 5 games. Evgenija Doluhanova (Ukraine) is a half point behind the leaders. She is in third place. 15 chess players have gained 4 points.

Boris Grachev, Ildar Khairullin and Pavel Ponkratov (all representing Russia) and Mateusz Bartel (Poland) with 4.5 points are sharing the lead in the Men’s Premier Cup. 15 participants of the tournament have 4 points.

The game of the third round, Julia Dogodkina – Nino Batsiashvili, was played in the Moscow Open 2014 Russian Premier Cup, stands out not only as a sensational result, but for the interesting creative content. In a spectacular struggle, the Saratov student was able to get the better of the famous Georgian chessplayer. 

More than 700 young chess players representing 12 countries and 50 regions of Russia are competing these days in the children’s tournament of the festival, the RSSU School Champion Cup. We should remind you that chess players placed 1-3 in their groups will advance to the European School Championship that will be held in Greece this June.  The names of the winners and prize holders will be known in three days. And now when there are still three more rounds to play we will define the leaders in the respective age categories.

In the tournament of the youngest age category among the boys U9 Georgy Vdovin (Moscow) shows a 100% result that makes 6 points out of 6. Nikolai Ogorodnikov (the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area) is the runner up.