14-Year-Old Sensation Suleymanli Wins Aeroflot Open

It was his compatriot, GM Rauf Mamedov, who was leading the tournament from the start, but with a better tiebreak, 14-year-old Aydin Suleymanli of Azerbaijan ended up as the sensational winner of the Aeroflot Open in Moscow. 

A year ago, the Estonian grandmaster Kaido Kulaots was the surprising winner of the Aeroflot Open. As the 62nd seed, he won the tournament a day before his 43rd birthday.

This year, the tournament had another very surprising winner—a little-known, 14-year-old from Azerbaijan. Suleymanli's rating? 2474. Seeded in the tournament? 71st.

Aydin Suleymanli is showing at the #AeroflotOpen that you don't have to be Indian to be a terrifying teen...

— Jonathan Tisdall (@GMjtis) February 26, 2020

2020 Aeroflot Open | Final Standings (Top 20)

(Full final standings here.)

So far, this young talent had made his name known only at youth tournaments. He won gold medals at the 2013 European Youth Championship U8, the 2017 European Youth Championship U12, and the 2019 World Youth Championship U14.

This week, he showed amazingly mature chess in Moscow, where he played at a staggering performance rating of 2791.

The A group is intended for players rated above 2550, but the organizers are usually not strict with this rule, and especially for a young talent, it makes sense to make an exception. Winning the tournament was not a bad way for Suleymanli to show he belonged there.

Beating GM Aleksandar Indjic and playing draws with GMs Mustafa Yilmaz, Praggnanandhaa R, Mikhail Kobalia, and Haik Martirosyan was already an excellent first half for Suleymanli. But then the fun really started.

The boy defeated three strong GMs in a row: his compatriot GM Vasif Durarbayli, then GM Ilia Smirin, and then GM Parham Maghsoodloo, the 2018 World Junior Champion.

Annotations by NM Jeremy Kane

With that third win, he caught another compatriot, Mamedov, in first place before the final round. They played, and when Mamedov failed to get a tangible advantage, he decided to offer a draw and split the prize money with his young compatriot.

He knew he also gave his young compatriot the title because the first tiebreak was the number of games played with black, and Suleymanli had one more thanks to this final game.

Four players playing the black pieces could still reach the same number of points (GM Sanan Sjugirov, Yilmaz, GM Baskaran Adhiban and GM Rinat Jumabayev) and the same number of black games (five), but their second tiebreak, the average rating of their opponents, would be worse than Suleymanli's.

Jumabayev did win, and so did Indian GM Aravindh Chithambaram with the white pieces, and these two players shared first place with Suleymanli and Mamedov. All four won 9,750 euros.

Here are all of Suleymanli's games for replay:

Organized for the 18th time, the Aeroflot Open held up a long tradition that started in the legendary 3182-room hotel Russia (demolished in 2006) before it moved to the Izmailovo complex. It has been hosted by the Cosmos Hotel in recent years.

It was another open tournament with a large contingent of players from India—the A group, for players rated 2550 or higher, had as many participants from India as from Russia: 25 each.

And there was certainly Indian success. 12-year-old Bharath Subramaniyam scored his first GM norm, and at 12 years, four months and 11 days, he still has a (small) chance of beating Sergey Karjakin's historic record.

And then there was 14-year-old FM Pranesh M, who secured his IM title by scoring 4/9, good for his third IM norm.

Congratulations to 14 year old Pranesh for his 3rd IM norm & IM title at Aeroflot open! Almost a sure GM norm was missed by 2 unexpected losses. Another talent from rural India, who did not have a laptop/computer till about a year ago!

— Ramesh RB (@Rameshchess) February 27, 2020

Pranesh.M 🇮🇳 (2425) became India's latest IM as he completed his final norm at the Aeroflot Open 2020 (A) by scoring 4/9.

Pranav Anand 🇮🇳 (2309) completed his final IM norm at the Aeroflot Open 2020 (B) by scoring 5/9.

Congratulations boys!!

📸 Puneet Jaiswal / Niki Riga pic.twitter.com/mK7xv8K3AY

— Chess.com - India (@chesscom_in) February 28, 2020

The Aeroflot Open took place February 19-28 in Hotel Cosmos in Moscow, Russia. The A group had 97 players from 21 federations, including 63 grandmasters.

There was also a B group for players 2300-2549, a C group for players rated below 2300, and a children's tournament named after Anatoly Karpov. The total prize fund was 120,000 euros.

With his win, Suleymanli will be invited to the tournament in Dortmund this coming summer. Renamed "Sparkassen Chess Trophy," this event is no longer a super GM round robin, but will consist of three open tournaments.