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Bomb scare halts round 1 at the Aeroflot Open 2019

by Sagar Shah - 19/02/2019

While the first round of the Aeroflot Open 2019 was in progress, the players were asked to evacuate Hotel Cosmos because of a bomb scare. Some players went straight outside on to the streets in  -1°C cold, while some took the risk, went up to their rooms got their jackets and then ran outside. The Indian contingent then was taken to the nearby college where they spent nearly four hours. Things are under control and it seems like it was a hoax call. The Indian players are all safe. AICF and the officials in Moscow also contacted the Indian embassy in Moscow and measures were taken to bring everything under control. Round one will be played tomorrow once again with the same pairing and on one of the subsequent days there were be two rounds held.

There was a bomb scare in round 1 of the Aeroflot Open 2019 at Hotel Cosmos. The players were given 10 minutes to collect their important stuff and were evacuated from the playing hall and the hotel and were forced to spend some time on the road in -1°C. The good news is that all the players are safe. The bad news is that round 1, which had started, has been cancelled. The players will play a new game against the same opponents tomorrow and on one of the subsequent days there will be double rounds.

The sun was shining as the players were on the streets. The temperature was -1°C.

Some of the youngsters are really feeling the cold. Especially Sankalp Gupta (third from left)

Players from Maharahstra Shantanu Bhambure, Nikhil Dixit, Sammed Shete, Abhimanyu Puranik, Rithvik Raja and his mother

Bomb or no bomb, chess players have to analyze! The players walked for 5-10 minutes and were taken to a nearby college.

Group of experienced players

Group of youngsters - Gukesh, Divya, Rakshitta, Iniyan, Isha Sharma, K. Priyanka, Ajay Krishna and parents

Nothing to worry!

All's well that ends well!

Pairings of Indian players for round one - A group:

Rd.Bo.No.NameFEDRtgPts.ResultPts.NameFEDRtgNo.
1555GMKarthikeyan MuraliIND256000GMKovalev VladislavBLR27035
1757GMLalith Babu M RIND255600GMInarkiev ErnestoRUS26927
11161IMSychev KlementyRUS254500GMSasikiran KrishnanIND267811
11363GMAryan ChopraIND254000GMSjugirov SananRUS266313
11414GMSethuraman S.P.IND265100GMGhaem Maghami EhsanIRI254064
11565GMPuranik AbhimanyuIND253800GMAnton Guijarro DavidESP264215
11767GMDebashis DasIND253200GMIturrizaga Bonelli EduardoVEN264017
11818GMGanguly Surya ShekharIND263600GMPraggnanandhaa RIND253268
12171GMVishnu Prasanna. VIND252400GMSarana AlexeyRUS263021
12424GMGrachev BorisRUS262600IMGukesh DIND250874
12828GMMartirosyan Haik M.ARM261600GMGagare ShardulIND249578
12979GMKarthik VenkataramanIND249400GMZhou JianchaoCHN261529
13434GMJumabayev RinatKAZ260400IMIniyan PIND248084
13787GMHarika DronavalliIND247100GMGordievsky DmitryRUS260337
13838GMAravindh Chithambaram Vr.IND260100IMPrithu GuptaIND247088
14142GMNarayanan.S.LIND259300IMWarmerdam MaxNED245092
14293IMSadhwani RaunakIND244800GMTabatabaei M.AminIRI259043
14344GMAntipov Mikhail Al.RUS258900IMArjun KalyanIND244494
14495IMRaja Rithvik RIND244300GMNihal SarinIND257845
14697WIMZhu JinerCHN244200GMVaibhav SuriIND257547
14899FMSuleymenov AlisherKAZ242800GMNarayanan SrinathIND257249
14991CMAditya MittalIND245400GMPetrosian Tigran L.ARM259541

Indians in Group B

Rd.Bo.No.NameFEDRtgPts.ResultPts.NameFEDRtgNo.
11010GMShyam Sundar M.IND251200Sankalp GuptaIND234572
11616GMHamitevici VladimirMDA249000Koustav ChatterjeeIND233279
11780FMKonaplev AntonRUS233000GMSwapnil S. DhopadeIND248817
11982CMAronyak GhoshIND232400GMKostenko PetrKAZ246619
12222IMGolubov SaveliyRUS245900FMDixit NikhilIND231885
12386WGMGomes Mary AnnIND231700IMKazakovskiy ValeriyBLR245623
12588IMPadmini RoutIND231500IMDrygalov SergeyRUS245025
12992Ajay KarthikeyanIND229800IMMuradli MahammadAZE244429
13598WIMNandhidhaa P VIND226800Bazeev GermanRUS242335
145109Bhambure ShantanuIND222000WGMAmbartsumova KarinaRUS239645
14646IMNitin S.IND239500AGMSrihari L RIND2211110
15050FMTsoi DmitryRUS239200WIMMahalakshmi MIND2185114
151115CMSamadov ReadAZE218000IMKrishna Teja NIND239151
153117CMStukan MartinRUS216900Sammed Jaykumar SheteIND238753
157121Jaeel AtharvaIND214500FMZakaryan DavidRUS238257
15858FMPopov MikhailRUS238100WIMPujari RuchaIND2133122
159123WIMChitlange SakshiIND212700GMZhukova NataliaUKR237759
16060CMMendonca Leon LukeIND237600WIMDivya DeshmukhIND2126124
161125Rakshitta RaviIND210500IMGorbatov AlexejRUS236961
16262FMAbdisalimov AbdimalikUZB236700WIMGagare ShalmaliIND2026126

The most interesting pairing for Indians was beaten Ganguly and Praggnanandhaa. In fact they had played a few moves out of the opening and Ganguly seemed clearly better!

 

It is interesting to note that on the day when Ganguly versus Praggnanandhaa video on ChessBase India YouTube Channel reached 10 million views, the two opponents were paired once again. For all those who haven't see that video already, here it is:

For players who showed some amazing bit of preparation, this round not getting played was a big setback. Like Tamir Nabaty who showed some excellent home prep against Santos Miguel Ruiz.

Niklesh Jain's Shatranj Samachar on Moscow Bomb scare:

Special thanks to Bhavesh Patel for sending us the pictures and some important information


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