5 June 2016
Sergey Yanovsky: Belaya Ladya Winners Will Be Invited to Sirius
Head coach of the national chess teams answered the questions of Vladimir Barsky.
– Sergey, this conversation is taking place in Sochi, where the final of the All-Russian scholastic tournament Belaya Ladya is currently underway. How does this competition differ from other quite numerous and multifaceted children's tournaments?
– The Belaya Ladya's coverage could only be compared to that of the Russian Junior Championship. A great number of children take part in this event at its different qualification stages; this year almost as many as 7,000 players participated in the preliminary tournaments. Thanks to this competition, many schoolchildren start adopting serious attitude towards chess so that Belaya Ladya is unrivaled when it comes to promoting chess. This event has had a 47-years' history behind its shoulders and thousands of children which took part in it during that period of time. It is worth noting that it is Belaya Ladya that many prominent grandmasters began their way in chess with.
– Did you have a chance to participate in this tournament?
– Yes, I used to perform for my school team in the Moscow competitions. I was then a second grade pupil and played on board one: my stocks flew high when it became known that I was capable of defeating seventh graders. However, we still didn't make it into the final. President of the Russian Chess Federation Andrey Filatov, whose initiative has brought the tournament back to life, also used to play in Belaya Ladya on several occasions, and quite successfully so as his school had a number of strong players.
Head coach of the national chess teams grandmaster Sergey Yanovsky
– Has the tournament formula remained intact as it used to be back in the Soviet times?
– Yes: each team features still 4 players no older than 14 years provided that it includes at least one girl. They are bound to be pupils of the same school.
However, a major difference lies in the fact that starting with the last year Belaya Ladya has turned into an international tournament as it includes schoolchildren from Armenia, Belarus, Israel, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and Mongolia. This time the number of foreign teams has increased to 9 as it was added by representatives of China, Latvia and Estonia. Great enthusiasm towards the tournament has also been shown by some other countries, which started negotiating with us, but it is for certain technical reasons that they could not take part this time around. Nevertheless, we are looking forward to seeing them next year.
This said, participation of such mighty chess power as China is treated as a milestone event. It should be noted that China has been indirectly involved in these tournaments since earlier times: on the initiative and with the support of the Timchenko Foundation the strongest Russian team used to play matches with their Chinese peers. The two previous matches took place in China – in Beijing and in Shanghai, whereas this year the match is planned to take place in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
In general, the Russian-Chinese chess-related relationships are on the side of rapid development as very soon we are in for a regular, already tenth friendly match between our national teams, each of which will be represented by 5 male and 5 female players. It is worth recalling that the China men's team is the current holder of the Olympiad Champion title, while same title among women belongs to our team. The junior matches are no less important as children tend to mature quickly and nowadays the 14-15 years olds are capable of joining ranks of adult teams.
Let me add here that for as many as three years the RCF has been implementing a range of activities aimed at parentless children. Nearly 300 institutions (orphanage and boarding schools) have signed up to the program, while the RCF helps them with supply of chess equipment and literature to study the game. There have opened over 50 chess circles in which children are systematically engaged in studying chess under the guidance of teachers and coaches. Those children who have tapped into chess are clearly seen to have improved their academic performance. It has long since been observed that chess has a positive influence on the overall intellectual level of children as it contributes to promoting logical type of thinking and learning to calculate consequences of adopted decisions.
I would also like to thank the Russian Olympic Committee for having included chess into one of its charitable programs for promotion and development of sports so that now the supply of many regional chess schools and clubs is funded by it.
It goes without saying that positive attitude of our state leadership contributes to raising the prestige of chess. President of Russia has being paying significant attention to development of children's chess: two years ago he visited the final of Belaya Ladya, while recently he has started off the chess section in the educational center "Sirius", established in Sochi on his own initiative. We have decided that the Belaya Ladya winners are to be invited to one of the Sirius' training sessions. The 14th world champion Vladimir Kramnik is in charge of supervising over the progress of the chess section of "Sirius".
– Does it mean that Sochi gradually turns into our new chess capital?
– Indeed, it has recently hosted the Men's World Championship match (2014) and the Women's World Championship match (2015). Each year Sochi hosts Russian Junior Championships, which gather over 1,500 participants, as well as national team championships.
At present the health center "Dagomys" features all conditions to allow children having good leisure time following the end of chess battles. A broad sports program, including football, volleyball, and table tennis competitions, is in store for children. The complex features a great swimming pool with sea water, not to mention the sea water itself is quite warm already. In addition to that, a series of "Brain Ring" games will be organized since they used to be very popular with children in the past.
The kids will have opportunities to enhance their chess skills further. The grandmaster Sergey Rublevsky, the senior Russian women's team coach, will be there to help children analyze the most interesting clashes. Also invited to the event is the world-famous coach and the chess best-selling author Mark Dvoretsky, who will conduct classes on chess improvement techniques.
Organizers and sponsors provide full board accommodation to participants of Belaya Ladya, so that qualifying into the final is a great prize in and by itself. I do hope that recollections of this tournament, which the children will carry home with them soon, will be unforgettable ones!
