Report by Shohreh Bayat
The 17th International Chess Festival “Caspian Cup 2019” and “3rd Chess Stars Cup” was officially opened in Anzali Free Zone in Iran on 11 February 2019 and held from 12-19 February 2019. No less than 20 countries were represented in this annual event organised by the Gilan Chess Association under the auspices of Chess Federation of the Islamic.Republic of Iran and which attracted well over 750 participants.
3rd Chess Stars Cup
With many brilliant young Iran players now making their way up the global rankings, taking centre stage was the third edition of the Stars Cup, a competition between a team of Iran’s best against an experienced group of foreign Grandmasters.
The format was the Scheveningen System which pitted the World Stars comprising GM Eltaj Safarli form Azernaijan, GM Evgeny Alekseev from Russia, GM Marin Bosiocic from Croatia, and GM Sergey Tiviakov from Netherlands against the Iran Stars comprising World Junior Champion GM Parham Maghsoodloo, GM Alireza Firouzja, GM Mohammad Amin Tabatabaei and GM Amirreza Pourramezanali.
After 8 rounds of competition, the Iran Stars convincingly prevailed over the World Stars with a match point score of 10 to 6 and game point score of 17 to 15.
Iranian super talent Alireza Firouzja was the only undefeated player and he gained +17.2 rating points.
Parham Maghsooloo also played well and gained +6.6 rating points.
GM Marin Bosiocic was however the most uncompromising player in the tournament with no draws, with 4 wins and 4 losses and scoring 4 out of 8.
GM Alekseev also played some great games and achieved a performance rating of 2644.
Mohammad Amin Tabatabaei by gaining +5.2 rating points has once again reached a 2600 rating.
17th Caspian Cup
The 17th Caspian Cup was another event that took place in the same time in the same place and is considered to be the most representative open tournament in Iran and where in recent years, has even seen such global chess stars as Anatoly Karpov and Nigel Short as special guests.
The event consisted of five groups according to the rating of the participants – А (2100 and more), B (2099-1800), C (1799 and less) D (Women) and C (Youth- Under 14). Participants of all the groups played in 9 or 11 rounds according to the Swiss system.
This year the winner of the Masters or A Group were Iran GM Masoud Mosadeghpour with Vitaliy Bernadskiy from Ukraine and GM Karen Grigoryan from Armenia in 2nd and 3rd place respectively.
