On Jan 31 Alexander Grischuk added the Moscow Championship Superfinal Cup to his trophy collection. Alexander took the victory with the dignity and calmness characteristic of a grandmaster having a great number of titles.  We congratulated the winner and asked him to answer several questions.

- Alexander, is it hard playing as the rating favorite?
- It’s not for the first time in my life, so it's nothing special for me. But it is always a pleasure to maintain my status.

The grand ceremony opening of the Moscow Open 2014, the 10th International RSSU Chess Cup was held on Saturday, Fabruary 1 in the assembly hall of the Russian State Social University main corpus. The organizers and the honored guests came to congratulate and pass their wishes to the participants of the competitions. The dance performed by the artists of the Chess Battles Moscow Music Hall helped the guests to get positive emotions before the official part started.

The technical meeting and drawing of the Men's and Women's RSSU Student Grandmaster Cup was held immediately after the Moscow Championship Superfinals. The tournament head arbiter, International Arbiter Andrzej Filipowicz, has suggested that the participants should choose the official pamphlets of the Moscow Open 2014, RSSU Cup. The booklet contained the starting numbers according to which the chess players (men and women) were placed in the tournament cross-table.

The Men's and Women's Moscow Championship Superfinals were held for two days in the Russian State Social University. These competitions have become the first in the program of the Moscow Open 2014, 10th International RSSU Cup. The official opening ceremony of the Cup will be held on Saturday Feb 1. 10 men and 10 women were competing for the prizes of the Superfinals. Half of them have received this right according to the results of the Regular Championship, another half was composed of personally invited grand masters – the strongest chess players of Moscow.

The opening ceremony of the Moscow Open 2014, RSSU School Champion Cup was held the frosty morning of January 31 in the assembly hall of the RSSU main corpus. The children watched enthusiastically as circus performers entertained them for more than half an hour. After that the floor was passed to the organizers and the honored guests.

The Vice-Chairman of the Department of Physical Culture and Sport of Moscow Mr. Alexei Pyzhov  commemorated this days opening of one of the main tournaments of the festival – the School Champion Cup.

The Men's Moscow Blitz Championship Superfinals began Thursday Jan 30 in a Russian State Social University auditorium. This is the first event of the Moscow Open 2014, 10th International RSSU Cup.  The prizes are contested by Moscow's strongest chess players—10 men, and 10 women. The competition is in round-robin format.

After the first day of play the lone leader of the men's section is Yevgeniy Najer, gathering 4.5 points in five rounds. Three grandmasters trail him by half a point—Alexander Grischuk, Ian Nepomniachtchi, and Ivan Popov. Boris Grachev has earned 3 points, Alexander Morozevich 2.5.

An opening ceremony for the Moscow Championship Superfinal was held in the Moscow chess lounge, located in the Central Litterateur House, where the drawing of the men's and women's superfinal. At the beginning of the event the guests were addressed by Moscow Chess Federation president, famous businessman and philanthropist Vladimir Palikhata. He said that he was very pleased to see the leading chess players of the Moscow chess lounge, recently beginning their work in the CLH. 

A press conference for the 10th International RSSU Cup, the festival known as the Moscow Open 2014, was held in the ITAR-TASS press center. The festival will take place from Jan 30 to Feb 9, 2014 on the Russian State Social University campus. 

In attendance were the the Moscow department of physical education and Sport deputy leader, Alexei Pyzhkov; Moscow Chess Federation  president, Vladimir Palikhata; RSSU rector-founder and Moscow Chess Federation honorary president, Vasiliy Ivanovich Zhukov; International School Chess Union president and tournament director, Alexander Kostiev; and Moscow Sport and Spectator Event Directorate director, Alexander Buzdakov.

The Men's and Women's Superfinals of the Moscow Chess Championship will be the first event of the 10th Moscow Open International RSSU Cup. It will take place January 30th and 31st in corpus 8 of the Russian State Social University campus. Each of the events will be contested by the capital's ten strongest players, among which are international chess stars.

Competing in the men's section: multiple-time Olympiad champions of the Russian team, Alexander Grischuk and Alexander Morozevich; European champion and winner of World Team Championship for Russia, Ian Nepomniachtchi; GMs Boris Grachev, Vladimir Potkin, Ivan Popov, Yevgeniy Najer and Urii Eliseev; IM Maxim Vavulin; and FM Dimitri Gordievsky.

The ninth international RSSU Cup "Moscow Open 2013" was concluded on Sunday evening, February 10th, on the Russian State Social University campus.

The awards to the winners and medalists of the competition were presented by the Chair of the Guardian Board of the Russian Chess Federation Arkadi Dvorkovich, the first deputy head of Moscomsport Nikolai Gulyaev, RSSU rector Lidia Fedyakina, RSSU founding rector Vasily Ivanovich Zhukov and first vice-president of the Moscow Chess Federation Nikita Kim.