The International Tashir chess tournament has opened

On November 3, the opening ceremony of the international Tashir chess tournament in memory of Tigran Petrosian was held. The organisers of the tournament are Tashir Group and the Russian Chess Federation.The colourful ceremony was attended by well-known businessmen, sportsmen, cultural figures, the owner of the Tashir Group Samvel Karapetian, member of the RCF supervisory board, businessman Gennady Timchenko, the President of FIDE Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the President of RCF Andrey Filatov, the businessmen Oleg Skvortsov, General Director of CCIRF, Vice-President of RCF Pavel Shinsky, the famous basketball player Sergey Panov, and world champions in the modern pentathlon Sergey Karyakin and Alexandr Lesun. The following elite chess players of the world were also in attendance: the world’s eldest grandmaster Yuri Averbach, the RCF President’s adviser Alexander Bach, the merited coaches of the USSR Anatoly Bykhovsky and Mark Dvoretsky, the grandmasters Sergey Karjakin, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Sergey Yanovsky, Yury Dokhoian, Evgeniy Najer, Valentina Gunina, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Olga Girya, Svetlana Matveyeva, and many others.

The ceremony was hosted by the film director, actor and TV anchor Tigran Keosaian.During the opening ceremony, the film 'The Iron Tigran' about Tigran Petrosian was shown; this was followed by the legend of Armenian chess, the grandmaster Rafael Vaganian, who informed the audience of Tigran Petrosian’s 'Chess Lectures' that had been reprinted by Tashir Group in honour of the present tournament.
The President of FIDE Kirsan Ilyumzhinov greeted the audience and awarded the Tigran Petrosian Medal to the Chief Arbiter of the tournament Boris Postovsky (USA) for his outstanding coaching achievements in the past.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov said: “On behalf of the FIDE Presidential Council let me congratulate the participants and the guests of the International Tashir chess tournament in memory of Tigran Petrosian. We should thank the organisers of the tournament – the Russian Chess Federation and Tashir Group. Tigran Petrosian holds a special place among world champions, and I am sure that the participants will bring a real celebration for chess lovers.”

The President of RCF Andrey Filatov thanked Tashir Group for a new Moscow chess tournament with participation of the world's strongest grandmasters: “I am happy for the ever-increasing number of chess sponsors in the world, and the Tashir Group of Companies is one of them. I hope that the present tournament will bring us outstanding games, the best of which will go down in the history of chess.”
The guests were then invited to watch a video in which sculptor Georgiy Frangulian talked about the grand prize to be awarded to the competition winner – a bronze figurine of Nike holdings a laurel wreath in her hands.

Chief Arbiter Boris Postovsky then held the pairings. The start numbers of players were as follows: 1. Ding Liren, 2. Peter Leko, 3. Levon Aronian, 4. Alexander Grischuk, 5. Ernesto Inarkiev, 6. Boris Gelfand, 7. Alexander Morozevich, 8. Vladimir Kramnik.
Thus the 1st round pairs are:
Ding Liren – V. Kramnik, P. Leko – A. Morozevich, L. Aronian – B. Gelfand, A. Grischuk - E. Inarkiev.