The Sixth Open International Mikhail Botvinnik World Chess Cup was held in Moscow from August 11 to 18. The tournament was organized by the Association of Chess Federations with the support of the CIS Interstate Fund for Humanitarian Cooperation.
Teams from nine CIS countries – Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan – took part in the competition. The tournament was held in a nine-round round-robin format under a classical time control of 90 minutes per game, with an addition of 30 seconds per move starting from move one.
Traditionally, each team was headed by a grandmaster captain and consisted of three boys and one girl under the age of 14. The captains played simultaneous exhibition matches against young players from other teams using chess clocks. The points scored by all members of a team, including the children and the captain, were added together to determine the team’s overall score.
The Russian team won convincingly, with grandmaster Mikhail Demidov, Arseny Kleschevnikov, Makar Berdashkevich, Kirill Zhelonkin, and Victoria Makhina scoring 43.5 points.
The Kazakhstan team took second place with 38 points. Its members were grandmaster Petr Kostenko, FIDE master Alisher Abdsattar, Aldiyar Zharas, Maksat Baisalbekov, and Aknur Mamakova.
The Belarusian team took bronze with 37 points. Its members were grandmaster Mikhail Nikitenko, Damir Bulgak, Roman Ostrovsky, Ivan Kozhedub, and Alisa Maliush.