Ilya in his 12 years old bears the title of World Champion among boys in classical chess. He is a silver medallist of the European Championship among boys under 12 years old. In March 2018, Ilya was awarded the title “FIDE Master”. This year, Ilya will compete for the title of the strongest player in the Russian Cup tournament among men and in blitz.

The ward of “The constellation of kindness” fund, a young chess player who was introduced to the chess community by the sixth FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, five-year-old Misha Osipov helped to draw for colour. The star of the “Best of All” programme on Channel One pulled out a white horse. This means that the tournaments rating favourites will play with white pieces in the first round.
The RSSU Chess Cup Moscow Open is one of the largest of the world in terms of the number of participants. This year it will bring together over 2,000 players. President of FIDE Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, ex-world chess champions Boris Spassky and Anatoly Karpov, first deputy chairman of Moskomsport, Olympic champion Nikolay Gulyaev, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Russian State Social University Alexander Pochinok and many other well-known people were tournament’s honorary guests in different years.
The Moscow Open Festival is traditionally held with the support of the Moscow Chess Federation, the Ministry of Sports of Russia, Moskomsport, and the Government of the Russian Federation. In 2015, the League of Stakes became the general partner of Moscow Open providing organizational support for the event and the tournament prize pool.