From January 3 to January 9, the Russian Children's Chess Cup was held in Tula as a part of the All-Russian Decade of Sports and Health. Born in 2015, Roman Shogdzhiev from Kalmykia did not leave his opponents a chance to win the tournament. He scored nine points out of nine possible and took first place among 32 participants.
This year, one of the tasks of the young chess player is to win the final of the Russian Children's Cup. Selection to the final will be based on the results of three stages. The first step to the final has already been taken. Earlier, young chess players from Kalmykia became winners of the Moscow championship, taking three prizes. Roman Shogdzhiev took third place among boys under 11 years old, Sofia Kekeyeva and Alexei Shushunov became silver medallists among girls and boys under 17 years old. In addition, students won the right to play in the Major League of the Russian Chess Championship in 2022.
The first President of Kalmykia, sixth President of FIDE Kirsan Ilyumzhinov wished the young chess player good luck and new victories and said: “In April 1993, one of the first decrees that I signed dealt specifically with the support of chess in the republic. Later, at FIDE, we created the Chess in Schools programme.
At the first stage, our task was the most mundane: to teach children to play chess. Today, chess is taught optionally in all schools in the republic, children have begun to participate in all-Russian and international competitions, showing decent results in them. Now we have both International Masters and International Grandmasters! At the age of eleven, Sanan Syugirov became the world champion among children under fourteen. Many have decent international ratings, take part in tournaments abroad and at the same time show excellent results in school.”
