9 June 2021

State Awards Presented to Russian Chess Players

The ceremony took place in the Russian Ministry of Sports.

 

In April 2021, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin awarded the chess players and coaches of the national team for taking the first online FIDE Olympiad. Senior coach of the men's national team Andrey Filatov received the Order of Honour; Valentina Gunina, Alexandra Kosteniuk and Kateryna Lagno — the Order of Friendship; Vladislav Artemiev, Aleksandra Goryachkina, Alexander Grischuk, Daniil Dubov, Alexander Motylev, Evgeniy Najer, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Vladimir Potkin, Sergei Rublevsky, Alexander Riazantsev and Sergey Janovsky - medals of the Order “For Merit to the Fatherland” of 2nd degree. Andrey Esipenko, Margarita Potapova, Alexey Sarana, Polina Shuvalova and the senior coach of the Russian youth team Mikhail Kobalia received Gratitudes from President of the Russian Federation.

On June 9, a solemn ceremony was organised at the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation to present state awards and incentives from President of the Russian Federation and departmental awards to representatives of the sports community from the Ministry of Sports of Russia.

Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation Oleg Matytsin presented the awards.

Minister of Sports addressed the event participants with the following words: “I express my gratitude to all the awarded with state and departmental awards, I thank you for your love of sports, experience and teamwork. Your and your colleagues’ example demonstrates our capability of handling any task.”

Oleg Matytsin also thanked FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, who was present at the awarding ceremony, for having organized the competition during the pandemic.

President of the Chess Federation of Russia and senior coach of the national men's chess team Andrey Filatov received the Order of Honor, and GMs Valentina Gunina and Kateryna Lagno received the Orders of Friendship.

Medals of the Order for Merit to the Fatherland of 2nd degree were awarded to GMs Vladislav Artemiev, Aleksandra Goryachkina, Evgeniy Najer, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Vladimir Potkin, Alexander Riazantsev, as well as the national chess team coaches and GMs Sergei Janovsky and Sergei Rublevsky.

Gratitude’s from President of the Russian Federation were given to GMs Alexey Sarana, Polina Shuvalova and Mikhail Kobalia.

Alexander Riazantsev spoke in response on behalf of the national team to note that it was a great honor for chess players to receive such high awards, and that the team would keep up to work hard to bring more gold medals to the country.


Pictures by Eteri Kublashvili