Overpopulating Minsk
The rapid and blitz world championships among cadets in the review of Eteri Kublashvili
It is for the first time in the history of chess that FIDE has organized U8, U10 and U12 world blitz and rapid championships among boys and girls. This large-scale competition has been taken on by the Belorussian Chess Federation, headed by its newly elected chairman Anastasia Sorokina.
Anastasia is Viktor Kupreichik’s niece, an international master, an international arbiter. She used to be a Belarus national team member, whereas several years ago she gave starts to a successfully developing chess school. Having this much experience under her belt, it is unsurprising to see the event carried out to the highest of levels.
The first trip of your correspondent to Belarus was also to Anastasia’s credit. Having had no time to take a walk around the city yet, I can only share my airport-to-hotel transfer impressions, as well as those from the hotel to the Sports Palace, which hosts both the World Cadets and the European Individual championships.
A big banner advertising the world championship jumps out at you once you find yourself outside the airport area, which is definitely good news. Minsk is a big city with no traffic jams (sounds like a fairy tale, doesn’t it?), with clean air, good roads with discernible road marking, moderate level of advertising along highways and streets (and I would go so far as to say that casinos are advertised everywhere).
The city features a lot of free space and vegetation. People do not walk over each other's heads, neither do their apartment windows open into adjacent building walls. The first impressions say that Minsk is a competent combination of the restored Soviet heritage, European traditions and a modern type of infrastructure. I look forward to taking a closer acquaintance with the beautiful city. Another thing is to get the hang of the local internet.
The children's tournament starts in the morning so as to be in time to give way to the European championship. There participate as many as 626 people from 24 countries, with 463 boys and 163 girls. The playhall of the Sports Palace is very spacious and admits everyone effortlessly.
The majority of rating favorites in all age groups is made up of Russians.
Thus, the rating list of the U8 group of boys is topped by Maxim Chertkov, Ivan Bekasov, and Savva Vetokhin. Girls of the same age group have the first three numbers of the contestant list occupied by the Russians Angelina Kozlova, Milana Fominykh and Anna Shukhman.
A rating-favorite in the U10 group of boys is Leonid Lystsov. Ekaterina Kirdyashkina is ranked fourth among the U10 girls.
Volodar Murzin, Andrei Tsvetkov and Alexei Grachev are in the top five among U12 boys. Victoria Kirchei is ranked second among girls under 12.
The opening ceremony was held at 9 am, right before the start of the ground. The participants were greeted by First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Belarus Maxim Ryzhenkov, Deputy Minister of Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Belarus Vyacheslav Durnov and FIDE Honorary Vice President, President of the Spanish Chess Federation Javier Ochoa.
The first day had the youngsters play 4 rounds of rapid chess.
In the U8 group of boys as many as 10 participants have scored 10 points, the Russians Marat Ashirov, Aldar Tykheev, Maxim Chertkov and Roman Simbelov being among them. Afruza Khamdamova (Uzbekistan) and Anna Shukhman (Russia) have a perfect score among the U8 girls.
Seven participants are in the lead in the U10 group of boys, including the Russians Tamerlan Chyndygyr, Vadim Gasanov and Iaroslav Tarasenko. Leading the field in the same age category among girls is Anzhelika Lomakina (Ukraine).
Having scored four points in the group of U12 boys are the Russians Leonid Girshgorn, Andrei Tsvetkov, Dmitry Kirillov and Grigori Averyanov. Wyong Quinh An (Vietnam) is in the lead among more aged girls.
The closing five rounds are scheduled on Saturday, May 3.
