On September 24-25, our capital hosted a very, very representative chess tournament “1st Anfield Cup – Legends of Kyiv”
57 participants, including nine grandmasters (the strongest roster of the Ukrainian tournament since at least 2020), played 9 rounds according to the Swiss system (the one that is planned to be introduced in the UEFA Champions League in 2024). Time control – “rapid”: 15 minutes per game plus 10 seconds for each move made. The results can be viewed for informational purposes only.
But no lines of the protocols are capable of conveying the incredible intensity of the struggle that accompanied, above all, the group of leaders. From the first six boards there was a live broadcast on the Internet, and the positions were also displayed on large television and projection screens. On the last, decisive tours, they even closed access there – so that numerous spectators and colleagues would not distract those fighting to the death.
Here it is necessary to say a few words about the unusual name of the tournament. The bottom line is that the owner of the Enfield pub, businessman Dmitry Zagorovsky, himself played chess in his dashing youth and “rose” to a strong candidate for the master, and now, at the suggestion of his friends, he decided to shake the old days and attracted top-class professionals to organize the tournament – an international grandmaster Vadim Malakhatko and the strongest international referee of Ukraine Oleksandr Prokhorov. The duties of the main arbiter of the tournament were performed by the charming Lana Afandieva from Baku.
If some hypocrite suddenly imagines that the pub is not the place for such an advanced game, let him take a closer look at where similar tournaments are often held in Europe. He expects a lot of exciting discoveries and the collapse of stereotypes.
The tournament itself demonstrated the marvelous unity of football and chess as two of the smartest sports, where the role of thought and time is unusually great. By and large, the difference is only in two points:
- in football they run, but in chess they walk;
- not all football players are interested in chess, but all chess players are not indifferent to football (exceptions, as Cicero said, only confirm the rule).
Despite the quite “Kiev” name of the tournament, guests from Odessa, Nizhyn, Mariupol, Kramatorsk and other cities of our Motherland took part in it and rose quite high, emphasizing the unity of the country and the commonality of our people. Forgive me this pathos, but in our days it is more appropriate than ever.
The victory in the tournament with a score of 7 out of 9 (plus 5) was won by the FIDE master Vladislav Bakhmatsky from Kharkov, but then five at once scored 6.5 points each (+4), and the tournament coefficient placed them in their places. It was he who gave the second place to Grandmaster Spartak Vysochin (Kyiv), and the third place to Grandmaster Eduard Andreev (Kramatorsk). They were joined on the virtual podium by FIDE Master Sergey Pavlov, GM Mikhail Golubev and Master of Sports of Ukraine Semyon Grebenyuk. Separately, it is necessary to note the successful participation of the Kyiv 12-year-old master Igor Samunenkov, the hopes of our chess (5.5 points and a division of 10-18 places – you see how high the price was even for one draw!). Grandmaster Oksana Vozovik, who scored 5 points, became the best among the excellent participants of the tournament. I remind you that all ages and genders are equal before chess!
At the closing ceremony, the inimitable soloist of the National Opera Alyona Grebenyuk sang the song “Maesh Strength”. And it was damn symbolic! After all, she acquired the status of a star of the opera stage precisely after the main role in Verdi’s “Force of Destiny” … Fate has power, and also – it obeys reasonable power.
Artem Frankov (4 points, 32-42 places, 41st in odds)
Source: Sportarena
