Opening ceremony of the Candidates Tournament at Pashkov house

On the 10th of March the opening ceremony and reception for the Candidates Tournament were held at the historical Pashkov House. The tournament is the penultimate part of the challenge cycle for the World Championship of the World Chess Federation (FIDE).

The Candidates Tournament is being organized by FIDE, Agon Limited and Tashir Group, the event’s General Partner. The reception gathered political, athletic and business VIPs, competing grandmasters and high society. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, FIDE’s President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, President of the Russian Chess Federation Andrei Filatov and Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Russian Chess Federation Dmitry Peskov have given welcome speeches. Serzh Sargsyan, President of Armenia, who had come to Moscow to attend the opening ceremony, became the reception’s guest of honor.

Naturally, the participants of the Tournament were in the center of attention. Chess masters Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana (USA), the seven-times Russian champion Pyotr Svidler (Russia), the World Cup 2015 winner Sergey Karjakin (Russia), former World Champions Viswanathan Anand (India) and Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), Anish Giri (Netherlands) and the three-times Olympic Champion Levon Aronian (Armenia) will play for the right to challenge the current World Champion, the 25 year-old Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, in New York this November.

Many of the guests were active supporters of chess events and lovers of the game. Enterpreneurs, public servants and, of course, grandmasters sat down for casual fast games at tables brought to Pashkov House’s hall. After the Tornament’s players and officials had been introduced and seeding results announced, Tatiana Arno and Nikolai Uskov, the evening’s hosts, made way for a special performance of the famous pianist and minimalist composer Anton Batagov, called the Russian Terry Riley. Batagov’s music, critics say, is a “life-changing experience.” This was followed by Anna Abalikhina’s “chess-themed” choreographic performance.

The following is an incomplete list of the guests: President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, Samvel Karapetyan (Tashir Group), Dmitry Peskov, Arkady Dvorkovich, Andrei Filatov, Alexander and Yekaterina Mechetin (Synergy), Gennady Timchenko, Alexander Zhukov, Ilya Merenzon, Mark Gerber, Gor Nakhapetyan, Vladimir Kramnik, Konstantin and Yelena Remchukov, Alexander Dobrovinsky, Alena Doletskaya, Eduard Boyakov, Olga and Charles Thomson, Anton and Victoria Borisevich, Anton Belov, Margarita Pushkina, Vasily Tsereteli and Kira Sakarello.