Aeroflot Open

The Aeroflot Open is an annual open chess tournament organised through the joint efforts of the Chess Federation of Russia and the Russian Ministry of Sport with the sponsorship from the Russian flag carrier, Aeroflot. It is played in Moscow, holding both the international open tournament and the Russian Youth Cup "Aeroflot Open - Children".^[1]

Aeroflot Open was established in 2002 as Swiss system tournament with nine rounds, and the winner is invited to the Dortmund chess tournament held later in the same year, a tradition begun in 2003. In 2013, it was converted into a rapid and blitz event. The first event had around 80 grandmasters, while in the second event 150 grandmasters participated. Beside the main tournament (A Group), there are also B and C-class tournaments.^[2]

The 2026 edition of this tournament was held from 28 February - 5 March 2026, at The Carlton Moscow in Moscow, Russia. It was won by Ian Nepomniachtchi.^[3]

Winners

The name of the winner is boldfaced as in some editions, a few players ended with the same overall score.

#	Year	Winner(s)	Points	Rounds
1	2002	Gregory Kaidanov (USA)  Alexander Grischuk (RUS)  Aleksej Aleksandrov (BLR)  Alexander Shabalov (USA)  Vadim Milov (SUI)	6½	9
2	2003	Viorel Bologan (MDA)  Aleksej Aleksandrov (BLR)  Alexei Fedorov (BLR)  Peter Svidler (RUS)	7	9
3	2004	Sergei Rublevsky (RUS)  Rafael Vaganian (ARM)  Valerij Filippov (RUS)	7	9
4	2005	Emil Sutovsky (ISR)  Andrei Kharlov (RUS)  Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR)  Alexander Motylev (RUS)  Vladimir Akopian (ARM)	6½	9
5	2006	Baadur Jobava (GEO)  Viorel Bologan (MDA)  Krishnan Sasikiran (IND)  Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE)	6½	9
6	2007	Evgeny Alekseev (RUS)	7	9
7	2008	Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS)	7	9
8	2009	Étienne Bacrot (FRA)  Alexander Moiseenko (UKR)	6½	9
9	2010	Lê Quang Liêm (VIE)	7	9
10	2011	Lê Quang Liêm (VIE)  Nikita Vitiugov (RUS)  Evgeny Tomashevsky (RUS)	6½	9
11	2012	Mateusz Bartel (POL)  Anton Korobov (UKR)  Pavel Eljanov (UKR)	6½	9
12	2013	Sergey Karjakin (RUS) (Rapid tournament)  Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS) (Blitz tournament)	2–1[4] 15½	K.O. 18
13	2015	Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS)  Daniil Dubov (RUS)	7	9
14	2016	Evgeniy Najer (RUS)  Boris Gelfand (ISR)	6½	9
15	2017	Vladimir Fedoseev (RUS)	7	9
16	2018	Vladislav Kovalev (BLR)	7	9
17	2019	Kaido Külaots (EST)[5]  Haik Martirosyan (ARM)	7	9
18	2020	Aydin Suleymanli (AZE)[6]  Rinat Jumabayev (KAZ)  Rauf Mamedov (AZE)  Aravindh Chithambaram (IND)	6½	9
19	2024	Amin Tabatabaei (IRN)[1]	7½	9
20	2025	Ian Nepomniachtchi (FIDE)	7	9
21	2026	Ian Nepomniachtchi (FIDE)	7½	9

Results

2024

Aeroflot Open was included in the 2024 FIDE Circuit.

Ties were broken first according to the number of games played with the black pieces, then the average rating of the player's opponents, excluding the highest and the lowest.^[7]

Nine rounds were played; the top 20 players of this event were:^[8]

Rank	Seed	Player	Points	TB 1	TB 2
1	4	GM Amin Tabatabaei	7.5	4	2521
2	2	GM Andrey Esipenko	6.5	5	2532
3	6	GM Nodirbek Yakubboev	6.5	5	2512
4	5	GM Haik Martirosyan	6.5	4	2480
5	19	GM Denis Lazavik	6.5	4	2480
6	24	GM Sergey Drygalov	6	5	2505
7	8	GM Manuel Petrosyan	6	5	2457
8	14	GM Arseniy Nesterov	6	5	2435
9	10	GM David Paravyan	6	5	2428
10	16	GM Vadim Zvjaginsev	6	5	2408
11	42	GM Aleksey Goganov	6	5	2387
12	1	GM Alexander Grischuk	6	4	2569
13	55	IM Yaroslav Remizov	6	4	2545
14	83	FM Alexey Grachev	6	4	2488
15	26	IM Aleksey Grebnev	6	5	2482
16	7	GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan	6	4	2479
17	11	GM Aydin Suleymanli	6	4	2468
18	45	IM Kazybek Nogerbek	6	4	2413
19	27	GM Mihail Nikitenko	6	4	2391
20	91	IM Kirill Klukin	5.5	5	2519

2025

Aeroflot Open was included in the 2025 FIDE Circuit.

Ties were broken first according to the number of games played with the black pieces, then the average rating of the player's opponents, excluding the highest and the lowest.^[9]

Nine rounds were played; the top 20 players of this event were:^[10]

Rank	Seed	Player	Points	TB 1	TB 2
1	1	GM Ian Nepomniachtchi	7	5	2557
2	3	GM Richard Rapport	6.5	5	2550
3	5	GM Andrey Esipenko	6.5	5	2510
4	15	GM Maxim Matlakov	6.5	5	2460
5	34	GM Sergei Lobanov	6.5	5	2423
6	9	GM Amin Tabatabaei	6.5	5	2403
7	43	GM Aleksey Goganov	6.5	4	2630
8	2	GM Hans Niemann	6.5	4	2565
9	18	GM Bardiya Daneshvar	6.5	4	2482
10	29	GM Savva Vetokhin	6	5	2538
11	25	GM Ivan Zemlyanskii	6	5	2527
12	31	GM Ilia Iljiushenok	6	5	2408
13	23	GM Pavel Ponkratov	6	5	2370
14	13	GM Aram Hakobyan	6	4	2518
15	7	GM Alexander Grischuk	6	4	2503
16	10	GM Raunak Sadhwani	6	4	2494
17	4	GM Daniil Dubov	6	4	2488
18	6	GM Vladislav Artemiev	6	4	2473
19	117	FM Maksim Volkov	6	4	2453
20	20	GM Arseniy Nesterov	6	4	2445

2026

Aeroflot Open was included in the 2026–2027 FIDE Circuit.

Ties were broken first according to the number of games played with the black pieces, then the average rating of the player's opponents, excluding the highest and the lowest.^[11]

Nine rounds were played; the top 20 players of this event were:^[12]

Rank	Seed	Player	Points	TB 1	TB 2
1	1	GM Ian Nepomniachtchi	7.5	5	2494
2	19	GM David Paravyan	6.5	5	2517
3	30	GM Rudik Makarian	6.5	5	2467
4	7	GM Haik M. Martirosyan	6.5	5	2451
5	17	GM Bardiya Daneshvar	6.5	5	2426
6	21	GM Aleksandr Shimanov	6.5	5	2426
7	62	IM Mukhammadzokhid Suyarov	6.5	4	2586
8	74	IM Sauat Nurgaliyev	6.5	4	2563
9	2	GM Andrey Esipenko	6.5	4	2516
10	20	GM Mahammad Muradli	6.5	4	2516
11	8	GM Aleksey Grebnev	6.5	4	2501
12	16	GM Arseniy Nesterov	6.5	4	2495
13	10	GM Aram Hakobyan	6.5	4	2483
14	6	GM Raunak Sadhwani	6.5	4	2481
15	32	GM Artem Uskov	6.5	4	2458
16	28	GM Vadim Zvjaginsev	6.5	4	2399
17	5	GM Alexander Grischuk	6	5	2486
18	41	GM Siddharth Jagadeesh	6	5	2433
19	29	GM Nikita Afanasiev	6	5	2389
20	45	GM Boris Savchenko	6	4	2532

References

Sources

• Reports from Chessbase: 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013 blitz, 2013 rapid final
• Results from TWIC: 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
• On the 2002 edition from ruchess.com 2002