Vadim Zvjaginsev Wins the Dvoretsky Memorial

Lev Zverev shines in the children’s tournament

A rapid chess tournament, dedicated to the memory of the merited USSR coach Mark Izrailovich Dvoretsky (1947-2016), took place in the Central House of Chess Player on December 11, Wednesday. Participating in the event were eight renowned GMs who had had Mark Dvoretsky as their coach at various periods of their chess careers, namely: Vladimir Belov, Boris Grachev, Alexey Dreev, Vadim Zvjaginsev, Ernesto Inarkiev, Alexander Motylev, Ivan Popov and Evgeny Tomashevsky. It was a round-robin featuring 15 minutes per game plus a 3-second increment per move.

Final tournament standings:

1-3. V. Zvjaginsev, A. Motylev, A. Dreev - 4.5 points out of 7; 4. E. Tomashevsky - 4; 5-6. B. Grachev, E. Inarkiev - 3.5; 7. I. Popov - 2.5; 8. V. Belov - 1.


Having finished first due to better tie-breakers, Vadim Zvjaginsev received an elegant handmade cup introduced by the Adi Ahmad Club (Republic of Ingushetia). As a gift, all participants received tasty and healthy desserts "Makosh" and the wine from the famous French winery Château La Grace Dieu des Prieurs, located in Saint-Émilion - a historical region under the auspices of UNESCO.




A 10-year-old Moscow schoolboy Lev Zverev has triumphed with an unshared victory of 6 out of 7 in a 7-round robin tournament of boys and girls born in 2007 and younger, carried to the Swiss system (with the time control 25+10). Yuri Anisimov finished half a point behind, while Maxim Volkov, Alexandra Shvedova, Matvey Petrov, and Alexander Usov scored five points apiece.

Final standings

Each winner in the four age groups (boys U10 and U12, and girls U10 and U12), Lev Zverev, Yuri Anisimov, Olesya Fedorova, and Alexandra Zvereva, received awards from the Russian Federation of Chess for the sum of 20 thousand rubles. This money is to be spent for a session at one of the Grand Master Centers of the Russian Chess Federation or private chess-related tuition. Each participant has got M.Dvoretsky’s books Lessons in Mastery and Manual of Chess Exercises, as well as keepsakes from the RFC, and the prize takers were given additional gifts on top of that.  Sweet prizes to the children were provided by the Moscow Chess Federation.

Famous musicians Oksana Sidyagina (harp) and Marina Katarzhnova (violin) opened the program of the event dedicated to Mark Dvoretsky with a small concert.




Established by FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, the Mark Dvoretsky coaching prize was granted afterwards. The 2019 laureates of the prize were Alexandra Shvedova and her coach Alexey Korotylev, Polina Shuvalova and Sergey Zagrebelny, Savva Vetokhin and Jakov Geller, Rudik Makarian and Viktor Tchernyi. The President of the Moscow Chess Federation Sergey Lazarev gave prizes to the young Moscow chess players demonstrating exceptional success in 2019. The prizes went to Alexandra Shvedova, Polina Shuvalova, Savva Vetokhin, Rudik Makarian, Alexandra Obolentseva, Stefan Pogosyan, and Aram Yeritsyan.





The closing ceremony was wrapped up by Alexander Kostyev, chairman of the Chess at School subcommittee of the RFC Youth Committee, awarding the winners of the All-Russian contest “Chess Teacher of the Year”.

The co-organizers of the Dvoretsky Memorial are the Chess Federation of Russia and the Adi Ahmad Sports Club (Republic of Ingushetia).

Picture gallery by Vladimir Barsky and Boris Dolmatovsky