9 August 2015
Right Into the Bull's Eye!
The official opening ceremony of the Russian Championship Superfinal reviewed by Vladimir Barsky.
As soon as the Superfinal participants and guests find themselves in the airport terminal they are greeted by welcome placards, while the tournament posters are scattered here and there throughout the city. It is apparent that the arrival of the strongest Russian grandmasters is a remarkable event for the city of Chita, which has been looked forward to and carefully prepared for long beforehand. The organizers have not only released a colorful booklet, but also a special 24-page issue of the newspaper "The Sportive Chita" has been devoted entirely to the upcoming tournament, together with a variety of souvenir gifts. Participants and guests have been accommodated in the beautiful hotel in the city center, where the Western European name "Mont Blanc" is getting along quite successfully with a generous Siberian cuisine, whereas and health clinic "Akademija Zdorovja" has come up with a special offer of an individual health program that includes a variety of balneologic treatment procedures. During the competition the players are very much unlikely to be able to spend much time in the spa tubs and therapeutic mud-baths, but those players who came in advance to acclimatize themselves have already taken advantage of the hospitality offered by the head of the clinic Sergey Davydov, a chess candidate master himself.
However, a great deal of players arrived in only on Saturday of August 8, on the official day of arrival, and during this day the entertaining program was not tiresome for them. The Men’s and Women’s Champions Igor Lysyj and Valentina Gunina - along with the Zabaikalsky Krai Governor Konstantin Ilkovsky (who is also a head of the Chess Federation of the Zabaikalsky Krai) and the Executive Director of the RCF Mark Glukhovsky - attended the press conference. After that all the participants started to make for the City Philharmonic Hall, where the opening ceremony was about to take place.
Grandmasters are usually difficult to surprise by such kind of ceremonies, but the natives of Chita definitely seem to have succeeded in accomplishing that goal. It all began with the presentation of an amusing clip in which all residents of nearby houses rush in to cast a look at the game of chess, including a prominent figure of a housewife in hair-curlers. A highlight of the program was a range shooting into targets, behind which the chessplayers’ numbers were hidden. Well, it were not the participants themselves who were shooting at targets (although it is also one of the possible courses of the events development!), but rather the acknowledged masters of this sport Tuyana Dashidorzhieva and Galsan Bazarzhapov. They never missed even once, but were making all their "moves" strictly "along the first line!"
The concerted numbers were offered by a Cossack Choir and a Buryat musical ensemble. And, at last, the crux of the event was the performance of a virtuoso piano player from Tatarstan Rem Urasin, who received no less than a storm of applause from the members of the audience. The festive evening for participants and guests of the Superfinal was wrapped up by a dinner at one of the city's best restaurants.
