Blitz Chess Cup of the President of Kazakhstan, organized by the Research and Education Foundation named after academician Shahmardan Esenov and Kazakhstan Chess Federation, was held at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Almaty on June 18-19.Ilyumzhinov in his speech, in particular, noted that "the holding of international chess tournaments has become a tradition in the socio-political and cultural life of Kazakhstan".
"Chess has deep roots, true love and support here. FIDE has always supported both large-scale, like yours, and small tournaments. This is exactly why our organization manage to perform all the scheduled tasks, and the number of fans of the ancient game is growing year by year worldwide", he stressed.
In addition, the head of FIDE held a friendly conversation with the Chairman of the Board of JSC National Campaign Astana EXPO-2017 Akhmetzhan Yessimov on the sidelines of the event. Based on its results, it was decided that Kazakhstan would apply to host the knock-out Women's World Championship in Astana in 2017.
Later, before the official dinner, Galimzhan Yesenov handed the golden sign of KCF to Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.
Recall that more than 100 players from 30 countries participated in the tournament. The prize fund was $ 100 000. Farrukh Amonatov (Tajikistan), who collected 16 points, became the winner of the Cup of Eurasia, gold medal and the cash prize of $ 30 000. Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia) won the Silver Medal (16 points) and $ 20 000; Baadur Jobava (Georgia) won the Bronze Medal (15.5 points) and $ 14 000.
