The Moscow chess championship in the age category up to nine years ended at the Youth Sports School on 27th of March. The young player fully confirmed the words of coach Dmitry Sarangov a year ago. He said that Roman's championship is a matter of time. Being the undisputed favourite of the competition, Roman showed the expected 100% result - he won in all eight games and became the new champion of Moscow!
The first President of Kalmykia, sixth FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov highly appreciated the success of his young compatriot and conveyed his congratulations to Roma, the coach and the boy's parents:
“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, the task was the most mundane: to teach children to play chess. The children began to study chess as an optional extra in all schools, they began to travel to national and international competitions, showing decent results.
Now there are International Masters and International Grandmasters in Kalmykia! At the age of eleven, Sanan Syugirov became the world champion among children under fourteen. Many have decent international ratings, go to tournaments abroad and at the same time study well”.
It should be noted that from March 12 to 20, the Moscow Classical Chess Championship among men was held. In his first "adult" official tournament, Roman performed just fine. Having scored four points out of nine possible, he added 117.6 points to the international rating, and ... attracted everybody’s attention of the Match TV that filmed a video about one of the youngest participants in the history of the Moscow Chess Championships (the Games of Kings show premiered on March 25, 2022).
At the end of Februaray, the Moscow team championship in classical, rapid and blitz under 11 years old took place, which brought together all the strongest players of the capital. Despite his young age, Roman has already led the chess team of his school, becoming twice the bronze medallist of the championship. In the individual competition, Roman's performance is more successful. Rapid - 6 points out of 7 possible, first place on the first board, Blitz - 7.5 out of 9, second place on the first board. In the most prestigious classic - 6 out of 7, 1-3 places on the first board.
Roman will face a new challenge next week: the Russian championship, which will be held in Sochi. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov wishes him good luck and new victories!
