21.10.2017

Weightlifter becomes a chess coach after meeting with Ilyumzhinov

Oleg Komlev, as it turned out, is also an avid chess player. The famous Kaliningrad weightlifter is now working as a chess coach!

"Chess is my love since childhood," he admits. "I started playing when I was 10 years old. I played at home, school and took part in regional competitions. Eventually I started to play at the first adult level. While engaged in weightlifting, I played at training camps and then I taught all my pupils how to play chess."

To raise his level of skills, Komlev flew to Moscow in the summer of 2016 and visited the office of FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, where he met and talked with the head of the world chess in person. Ilyumzhinov gave the visitor from Kaliningrad methodical literature and several chess sets.
The hobby turned into something more, after the athlete was invited to work in the secondary school number 15 as rugby coach. But, having learned that there was a vacant position vacant position of a chess school teacher, Komlev asked for it.
"I have been training boys and girls for two years already", the trainer sums up." I teach about 30 pupils of the first and second grades. This is even more than in weightlifting – I had about 20 students then." Komlev's pupils took part in a regional tournament in early September. They did not become champions but played successfully. Weightlifter and chess player – is there such a versatile coach anywhere else on the planet?