Last spring was very productive in the chess events. The fourteenth World Champion Vladimir Kramnik played poorly with Gashimov, by losing for the first time the three games in a row in the classics chess. The fifteenth champion Viswanathan Anand left the tournament by winning the second prize, and the sixteenth Champion Magnus Carlsen has once again won the first prize. At the closing ceremony, the head of FIDE and the Governor of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Region Natalia Komarova made public speeches. Incidentally, after the Grand Prix, the city of Ugra will host the international tournament of Young Chess Players with the participation of 300 young men and women.
Almost simultaneously, the Russian Olympic Committee held its first ‘Chess Day’. The celebration at the Luzhnetskaya waterfront was attended by the President of Russian Olympic Committee Alexander Zhukov, the assistant of the President of Russia Igor Levitin, the member of the Federation Council and the famous hockey player Vyacheslav Fetisov, the member of the International Olympic Committee the tennis player Shamil Tarpishchev and the grandmasters Ian Nepomianchtchi and Aleksander Morozevich.
Many activities were provided; the most important one was the presentation of a newly invented technology of the ‘chess pairs’: the teams play two by two and the participants of every team make moves in turn. The first to try this experimental game were Alexander Zhukov paired with Ian Nepomniachtchi and Kirsan Ilyumzhinov with Alexander Morozevich.
They all were the experiences players but the dividing screen was erected in order to avoid any hints. It was the difficult match but Zhukov and Nepomianchtchi, forcing their opponents to the time trouble, finally won.
At the end of the evening, Alexander Zhukov said that the Russian Chess Federation has proposed to introduce chess as a subject in the 500 Russian secondary schools. In turn, Igor Levitin noted the great interest in chess of The Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Evgeny GIK
