It is no secret that the main obstacle to the release of this very spectacular feature of this game on the wide international level is a reasonable fear that that is almost impossible to exclude nonverbal communication amongst the members of a team sitting at the same table without consulting make moves in turn. Moreover, it would probably generate at least suspicion and at best the protests and even scandals in the official matches in which there is a lot at stake.
Thus, the new technology of the game was developed and rectified to make the chess pairing sport completely free of such kind of concerns. According to if, the game should take place simultaneously at two tables and if desired, may be separated by the light or even the soundproof partition.
It was interesting to listen to and watch how the famous hockey player and now a member of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Fetisov answered the questions of the journalists. In any case, the level of competence and knowledge of the subject shown by this seemingly far from chess man struck to the core:
- Like all boys, I used to play chess in my childhood, however, later it somehow did not work out. Currently the film is shown all over the world in which Anatoly Tarasov explains the hockey strategy to the hockey players over the chessboard. The opinion that hockey is the chess on ice is not accidental. We played pretty well using the strategy and secrets of chess.
I am here today for the reason that I supported this invention for a long time. We have patented the paired chess in the 17 countries and I hope that soon there would appear the new sport that would change much in this wonderful game that the millions and even hundreds of millions of people enjoy. It will also help chess to be included in the Olympic programme. I cannot consider myself as a chess player but some time ago started to believe that this new initiative could be very helpful. Therefore, I invested my time and money into it...
- By the way, the paired chess match would begin soon. Would you be the fan of Zhukov or Ilyumzhinov teams?
- A political question (laughs)! If we want to develop in the international arena we need to support Kirsan ... It much depends on him in this wonderful game. Well, Zhukov is our colleague, our friend and ally that is why he would understand...
However, let us separate the spoken words and the game. In the first game the FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and GM Alexander Morozevich played the white pieces and their opponents were the ROC President Alexander Zhukov and Grandmaster Yan Nepomnyaschy.
However, it soon became clear that some risky decisions of Morozevich were not fully understood by his partner and the more cooperating team of Zhukov with Nepomnyaschy managed to seize the initiative and gain the victory. Although, to be a little more precise, the whites in a very difficult position forfeited due to the time delay.
Immediately after the party, Zhukov said, “this is particularly interesting for me, because I think that every chess player was pleased to play with the outstanding chess player and… against the outstanding player.
- Do you think that this game has a future?
- I think, yes. In addition, I will be very happy to play it...
Further, a small press conference was held attended by Alexander Zhukov, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and Vyacheslav Fetisov as well as the IOC member Shamil Tarpishev, GMs Yan Nepomnyaschy and Alexander Morozevich who shared their impressions about the just finished match and the new system it was played with.
It is worth noting that, despite the start-up difficulties generated by the unusual system, all four players quickly become familiar with it and when it came to the opening, they acted almost unerringly. However, after one of the participants of the fight -Ilyumzhinov had to rush to the airport to carry out the closing of FIDE Grand Prix in Khanty-Mansiysk, his team had to find a replacement and chosen the one of the authors of this article.
At the very end of the opening, our team was able to seize the initiative. However, victory was still a long way ahead especially after Alexander Zhukov managed to avoid a series of the crafty traps of the blacks. As a result, the whites showed a good play and pretty soon the game ended up with a draw to everyone's delight.
However, the main question that troubled all the interested parties was the question of the application of the new system in practice. After all, along with the obvious idea of the demonstrational plays on the principle of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ we would very much like to hold the full and official Championships of Russia and possibly the World.
As it seemed to us all the participants of the discussion concluded that the most promising and entertaining would be a form of ‘mixed’ chess, in which the members of each team are the one man and one woman.
Some optimism has been generated by the fact that this idea seemed to attract a great interest of the influential and respected men in the world sports. Thus, Ilyumzhinov promised to raise the issue of granting the paired chess an official status and possibly of their inclusion in the programme of the World Intellectual Games at the FIDE Presidential Board. Moreover, Zhukov and Tarpishchev will continue to work on the inclusion of chess in the Winter Olympic Games.
P.S. The President of the Russian Chess Federation missed the chess celebration. However, the reason for the absence of Andrei Filatov was very serious. He was awarded the UNESCO medal ‘For contribution to international cooperation in the field of culture and efforts to preserve historical heritage’ in Paris on that day.

Marina and Sergey Makarychev