Ludmila Belavenets: I feel so happy for Vanya Yeletsky!
U19 Russian Champion and his coach answer Vladimir Barsky’s questions
Ludmila Belavenets: - Let me tell you what I know about Ivan Yeletsky. I do remember him as a child: he came to study chess with us at the age of nine and was about 3rd category player then. I first heard him utter something about two years later. When I handed out tasks to solve, he would invariably answer in writing and, to my surprise, did it right on most occasions. He gained in strength steadily and quickly and was not pushed into the background by other students. Back then we had a large group of very decent youngsters, who were a year older, born in 1998: Vavulin, Melnikov, Tarasov, Lushnikov, Mukhitdinov... Indeed, 1998 was extremely rich in talents, which probably takes a lucky alignment of stars to have it this way. Shining among younger children were Kovalev and Savenkov, the latter being the U8 World Champion.
The first time Vanya made it into the Russian Championship Higher League was after having shared places 1-2 in the U12 Moscow championship. In that tournament he defeated Savenkov as Black in the closed Sicilian. Konstantin’s play was asking for trouble, and Vanya grabbed everything that his opponent sacrificed and ended up winning after thwarting off the opponent’s attack. Although it was long ago, I do remember all key moments of his shaping as a player. From then on, Vanya would invariably qualify into the Higher League, save for an occasion when he came down with a disease.
However, nothing out of the ordinary was displayed by Yeletsky at the Russian Championships. I remember his making me happy for quite some time, having 5.5 out of 7 under his belt. Playing with Khanin in round 8, he turned a very decent position into a misery and went down as a result. This trend continued in the following game as well... His bad habit of losing the last couple of games was scary for me before this championship either.
– Then you just need to tell Ivan beforehand that he is in for 11 rather than 9 rounds, and that should help rule out that last two rounds phenomenon!
L.B.: – We would do exactly that, telling him: “Vanya, you start a new tournament tomorrow.” This time his performance was an immense pleasure to me, however! This was his last participation in the U19 competition. Although he is a bearer of the Russian champion’s title in the team event, this is not quite the same. As for now, he pulls out of junior chess with a triumph. Last year I heard Vavulin say similar thing to me, “This is my last appearance in this event, I want to take it”, and he did accordingly!
- By the way, how come Vavulin was not part of this year’s U21 competition?
L.B.: – He has entered a prestigious university – the Higher School of Economics. Immediately after the event in Loo he planned to participate in the Higher League of the Russian team championship. Maxim could not decide either way for a long time and even purchased tickets to Loo, but could not play in both tournaments in the final run. It is a pity, of course, because the Russian junior championship would have been undoubtedly stronger with Maxim playing in it, because he is almost a grandmaster now.
– Vanya, have you finished school yet?
Ivan Yeletsky: – I am about to finish 11th grade.
L.B.: – I still hope that you are not going to be such a professor as Vavulin. Are you?
I.Y. No, I am not. I am not going to enter the Higher School of Economics and will opt for a lesser prestigious institution instead, so that I could combine chess and study with less efforts.
– Have you got any offers?
I.Y. – I have an offer from Yakovich on this matter, but it should be discussed separately. When I pass the USE exam and my scores are known, I will decide which institution to apply to.
– Are you well versed for your exams?
I.Y. – We have had trial tests for each subject. I hope to get nearly 100 points in the Russian language, but I am not so confident about other exams.
– Do you think of yourself as a humanitarian?
I.Y. – Rather no than yes.
– You have Russian, Mathematics and yet another subject to your choice, don’t you?
I.Y. – Yes, I do. I still have my Physics and Informatics exams to pass.
– Ivan, please tell us something about the Russian Championship that you have managed to win. Who did you believe to be you main competitors and whether the lineup was strong in general?
I.Y. – Even though the lineup was not as tough as a year ago, I was strong nonetheless. I rated Khanin, Litvinov and a couple of others born in 1999 as my main rivals. However, it so happened that most of them failed in the first few rounds. As for me, I started well by scoring four out of four. Then I made a draw as Black with Timofey Smirnov. I emerged worse out of the opening, but an opportunity to repeat moves came my way. My opponent decided against testing me further. I made my second draw at the tournament finish and ended up with 8 out of 9.
L.B.: – This is a very high score: It turned out later that even 7 would be sufficient for the first place.
– What is your ELO rating dynamics?
I.Y. – I am slightly over 2400 now. I have had quite a gain to my previous rating.
– Do you intend to go on studying chess?
I.Y. – Yes, I do. I hope that my student years will give me plenty of opportunity to practice chess. It will, perhaps, be less time for chess than I enjoy nowadays, but not by far.
– What is the most appealing aspect of chess for you?
I.Y. – I enjoy the heat of fight and the contest of minds. It is not even the athletic aspect that appeals most to me, but rather the struggle of ideas born in players’ minds.
– Do you like creating something new in the openings?
I.Y. – Not only in the openings. I enjoy coming across new unexpected ideas at all stages of the game to somehow take my opponents by surprise.
– Ludmila Sergeevna, who else from the Moscow Youth shined this year?
L.B.: – Polina Shuvalova – but that was to be expected. She has added a lot during the latest couple of years and has displayed stability in her success. Despite being only 16, she won the U21 championship.
– Does grandmaster Sergey Zagrebelny coach Polina only, or does he have other students?
L.B.: – He has a group of students, but Polina is obviously everything for him... When Polina joined out school, we immediately assigned her to Zagrebelny. He took a lot of inspiration from what he believed to be a good investment of time that was going to yield good fruits down the road. Other children's’ level is far below and they are unlikely to sparkle his enthusiasm.
No other student of ours was a success this year, but neither were any failures, even among those who were first timers to Loo. I do hope that this long-awaited victory is going to instill confidence into Ivan.
– Ivan, do you take interest in anything other than chess?
L.B.: – Come clean, Ivan! Firstly, he plays music - I attended his concert once.
I.Y. – Well, my piano studies have lasted eight years. I have recently abandoned it, however.
L.B.: - I watched Vanya go out on stage, cast an antipathetic glance at the audience, bow and sit down to his instrument...
– Have you finally made up your mind about the higher educational institution that you are going to enter? You are down to one month to take this decision, after all.
I.Y. – I think of applied mathematics, perhaps. I am in better terms with math than with any other subject for that matter.
L.B.: - He says it in a way that one might think him having bad marks in other subjects and earning satisfactory-to-good marks in math with pain and misery at that. This is his way of presenting his achievements to others.
What is your favorite read?
I.Y. - From the classics I most like Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment”. As of recently I have been reading some modern books, fantasy, but I'm not a big fan of it.
– What foreign languages do you know?
I.Y. – Only English.
– How do you assess your knowledge of it?
I.Y. – I do not think it is that bad. I can more or less express myself. I have English friends who I can practice it with. The only problem is that all of them speak Russian!
Ivan Yeletsky’s story has been added to by his mother Anna Valerievna:
– We are really grateful to everyone who was and has been assisting us on our path of learning chess. First and foremost, this is about the Petrosian Chess Club. This is our luck that we transferred there and went directly to Ludmila Sergeevna. Back then Vanya said: “That’s it! I want to attend only this chess school!” The club has been supporting us throughout all this period, which looks like some eight years by now, if my memory serves me right.
Besides, we are thankful to organizers of the Grandmaster School in Kostroma, which is our great pleasure to have been part of for so many years now, having missed almost no session along the way. Different periods had Vanya working there with Konstantin Chernyshov and Vladimir Belikov, as well as some other coaches. He displayed very efficient performance in several tournaments right after the very first session, having gained a huge increase in rating points and just falling in love with the school! Being the 11th grade pupil, he had to miss this year’s training sessions though.
I want to say big thanks to the grandmaster Vladimir Belov; it is a pity that Vanya does fewer classes with him than he would like to, but he does appreciate those classes nonetheless.
All in all, we thank everyone who continue believing, helping and supporting us!
