Irkutsk (which has as many as 600,000 inhabitants) is well known as a chess venue despite being so far from Moscow.
There were 48 participants in the main section all of whom were rated 2400 or more.
Apparently there were five qualification places available for the final in December. I am not totally sure how the remaining places are attributed, but it would seem to be on tie-break when Denis Khismatullin, Vladimir Potkin, Igor Kurnosov and Vadim Zvjaginsev would then be the lucky quartet to make the cut. The latter having the nudge, due to the second tie-break, over top seed Evgeny Tomashevsky.
Place | Seed | Title | Name | Rating | + | = | - | Total | Tie-break (1) | Tie-break (2) |
1 | 2 | GM | Ian Nepomniachtchi | 2706 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 7 | 54.5 | 43.0 |
2 | 10 | GM | Denis Khismatullin | 2667 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 6.5 | 55.5 | 39.0 |
3 | 14 | GM | Vladimir Potkin | 2626 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 6.5 | 54.5 | 38.0 |
4 | 11 | GM | Igor Kurnosov | 2662 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 6.5 | 54.0 | 38.0 |
5 | 12 | GM | Vadim Zvjaginsev | 2656 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 6.5 | 53.5 | 38.0 |
6 | 1 | GM | Evgeny Tomashevsky | 2708 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 6.5 | 53.5 | 36.0 |
7 | 6 | GM | Alexander Riazantsev | 2682 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 6.5 | 51.5 | 35.0 |
8 | 16 | GM | Ildar Khairullin | 2620 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 6.5 | 51.0 | 35.0 |
9 | 3 | GM | Evgeny Alekseev | 2691 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 6.5 | 50.5 | 34.5 |
10 | 15 | GM | Vladimir Belov | 2625 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 6.5 | 48.5 | 33.0 |
11 | 18 | GM | Pavel Maletin | 2617 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 54.0 | 36.5 |
12 | 39 | GM | Denis Yevseev | 2531 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 47.0 | 28.0 |
World number 33 Ian Nepomniachtchi started well, including a couple of strategic wins with White in the Sveshnikov against Timofeev and Maletin. He was then able to coast to victory with four draws.
Unfancied Denis Yevseev started slowly but ran home with four wins out the last six rounds.
For more information (in Russian!) go to the Official site