Brains are in place: what you need to know about the Chess Stars 5.0 tournament

For the fifth time, Moscow will host the prestigious Chess Stars rapid chess tournament with a prize pool of 15 million rubles. From June 25 to June 30, top grandmasters from five countries and young chess players will cross paths on the same platform, who will even have the opportunity to meet their idols at the same board. For more information about Chess Stars 5.0, see the Izvestia article.

The time of the first

In recent years, Chess Stars has become one of the world's largest chess tournaments. The participants perform in rapid and blitz. The winner of the overall standings is the grandmaster who scored the lowest number of occupied places in two tournaments.

Vladislav Artemyev has almost no equal in this format. He won three of the four previous competitions. A year ago, at Chess Stars 4.0, the Russian showed the perfect result, becoming the best in both rapid chess and blitz. Azerbaijani Teymur Radjabov finished second (2nd place in rapid + 4th place in blitz). The third result was shown by two: Indian Raunak Sadhwani (3+5) and Russian Sergey Karjakin (5+3).

And the tradition was opened in October 2022. Even then, the organizers managed to assemble a strong team of participants from five countries. Among them was the 14th world champion Vladimir Kramnik. Artemyev became the champion of the debut tournament, who finished the first part as the leader, and lost only to Karyakin in the blitz. However, the former contender for the chess crown did not perform so well in rapid — fifth place. Sergey took the second place in the overall standings. Sadkhvani, Kramnik and Radjabov shared the third place in terms of the total number of places for the two tournaments. According to an additional indicator, namely the best place in rapid, the bronze went to the Azerbaijani.

The second issue of Chess Stars turned out to be especially intense. Until the last round, three people claimed the championship in the blitz: Artemyev, Karjakin and Alexander Grischuk. Vladislav needed to beat Alexander Chernykh, who was leading in the blitz tournament, in order to keep his chances of winning. Artemyev decided to take a chance, but lost to the three-time world champion in this type of chess. Karjakin won his game against Ekaterina Lagno, equaled Vladislav in points, but beat him in additional indicators in the fight for second place in the blitz. Thus, with the sum of 2+2, he became the winner of the tournament. Grischuk was one point behind him (4+1), Artemyev was two points behind (3+3).

Vladislav regained the title in December 2023 at Chess Stars 3.0. Everything was decided again in the last round of the blitz. This time, the fight was only between Artemyev and Grischuk. A draw with Ernesto Inarkiev could have been enough for Vladislav to win the final game. He calculated this moment and eventually won a beautiful victory over his compatriot. Grischuk lost his final game to Sandhvani, who took third place in the overall standings.

New issue

Compared to Chess Stars 4.0, the number of participants has changed by one: instead of Iranian Amin Tabatabai, two-time world blitz champion and vice-world rapid champion Bibisara Asaubayeva from Kazakhstan, who recently fulfilled all the standards for a grandmaster in the open category and is awaiting the official award of the title, will join the battle.

The Russian team at Chess Stars 5.0 turned out to be as powerful as ever: Sergey Karjakin, Vladislav Artemyev, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Ekaterina Lagno, Alexandra Goryachkina, Valentina Gunina. Azerbaijani Teymur Radjabov, the winner of the 2019 World Cup, does not miss the tournament either. Chess prodigies Raunak Sadhwani from India and Hou Yifan, number one in the world rankings, will come to Moscow again.

The main venue of this year's tournament will be the Azerbaijan Pavilion at VDNH. As part of the event, an opening ceremony and master classes of grandmasters for children will take place on June 25, and then the competitions themselves will begin: a rapid tournament will be held from June 26 to 28, and a blitz tournament on the 29th and 30th.

The organizers pay special attention to working with the younger generation. This year, for the first time, not only Russian young athletes, but also players from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and other countries will take part in the final of the Chess Stars 5.0 tournament. In the coming days, 24 winners in four age categories will be determined from more than 100 athletes: under 9, under 11, under 13 and under 17.

— Our mission is to develop the chess sport, inspire a new generation of players and create a platform for the exchange of experience. We are confident that every move on the board brings us closer to our common goal of popularizing chess and educating future champions," said Seymur Huseynov, CEO of New Chess.

Anyone can become a spectator of the competition, where world-renowned grandmasters and young chess players will play on the same platform. Admission to the tournament is free, but for this you need to register on the website. You can also follow the progress of the competition in online broadcasts. "Chess Stars 5.0" will end on June 30 with a solemn ceremony honoring the new winners.