Games with no Losers

World Children Winners' Games final in the review of Anna Kalyaeva

As a matter of fact, the World Children Winners' Games, an international sports competition among children who have defeated cancer, was taking place from June 2 to June 4 in Moscow under the auspices of the Podari Zhizn foundation for the eighth time in a row.

This children's festival, held in the sports complex CSCA, gathered over 500 children aged 7 to 17 not only from many regions of Russia, but also from as many as 13 foreign countries, them being: Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Hungary, Germany, India, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine, and Croatia.

Both the program and the list of disciplines have expanded. The children competed in six types of sports: shooting, table tennis, football, track and field, swimming and, needless to say, chess.  Winning these competitions is not the ultimate goal for their participants since they have already scored the most important victory in their life by having defeated the “malady of the age.” Year after year this festival gathers young people other than to compete only, but simply to talk, mix with old friends and share mutual celebration of their main victory.

The co-founders of the “Donate Life” fund, famous actresses Chulpan Khamatova and Dina Korzun, leave no stone unturned to make the festivities as bright and unforgettable as possible. The city of entertainment, creative master classes, practice grounds, and various other contests have never stopped for participants and guests likewise. As tradition has it, celebrities of sport, cinema and music were guests of the Games. To accept congratulations and medals from their hands is a great incentive for the participants to continue playing sports.

A two-day chess marathon was a traditional and special part of the festival. Over 200 young players of both sexes from 7 to 17 years of age have arrived for this event to challenge each other over the board. Day one of the chess program saw Ernesto Inarkiev, European Champion, give simul to all those who were willing to try their hand. The final day of the competition was a big 5-round Swiss system tournament among boys and girls of the following age groups: 7-9, 10-11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16-17 years.

"It was a pleasure being part of this special event for the second time already so as to tell more about chess and spend an interesting day with young folks, who at a so young an age have had such a challenging life experience so that many of them had literally looked death in the eyes," shared Ernesto Inarkiev following the end of the simul. A desire to challenge grandmaster was expressed by over a hundred children. Some of them had to stand the line to make it into the simul participant list, the most insistent having done so more than once.

While speaking about the participants’ level of play, grandmaster noted the following, “Although many of the children are relatively new to chess, they have demonstrated high motivation towards learning specifics of the game. I was pleasantly surprised by some experienced and very serious-minded children, whom I offered a draw - the simul was still underway, and they were late for other contests. They refused my draw offer immediately and without hesitation. They were fighting to the last bullet. Their strength of will and spirit is impressive!"

As a result, the simul lasted almost four hours, instead of the planned one. It could not do without minor tricks on the part of participants, however. “There was a player who made two moves. I do not think he did it on purpose - the circuit of players was large and the child might have simply forgotten having made a move already. But when it happened again, I decided to had better offer a draw, since I was unlikely to survive yet another occasion!” said Ernesto laughing.

In opinion of the grandmaster taking regular part in charity children's projects (for example, during the Ascension tournament in Sochi held in March, Ernesto gave a simul to orphanage school children), the event gave a powerful impulse for children to go on playing chess.

On June 4, the final day of the Games, almost 200 young chess players took their seats at the boards to find out the strongest in their age groups, having received an invaluable training from the European Champion the day before. Under the strict supervision of the arbiters’ team, the tournaments were held to the Swiss system in five rounds with a time control of 5 minutes per game. All participants received souvenirs from the Russian Chess Federation.

During the ceremony the best young players were awarded with prizes and medals. They were awarded by a TV host Ekaterina Strizhenova and actors Andrey Sokolov and Maxim Matveev. The ceremony of awarding was hosted by an actress and singer Anastasia Zadorozhnaya and an actor Dmitry Khrustalev.

The World Children Winners' Games’ closing ceremony ended with performances given by Burito, Pizza and Kvatro groups. Having become true friends, the children said goodbye and promised to see each other again next year. Each of the five hundred winners left the Games not only with fresh impressions, but also full of desire to continue playing sports and win chess tournaments.