Chess explosion in Khanty Mansiysk

Vasily FILIPENKO: “OLYMPIAD IS AN APOGEE, BUT WE ARE NOT GOING TO STOP”

Several years ago Khanty Mansiysk was considered as only a gas and oil capital of Russia. Now the city claims to be the main chess center of the country. It is a great merit of the President of the Okrug Chess Federation Vasily Filipenko.

IT IS ALWAYS GOOD TO WORK WITH SPONSORS.

• Are you satisfied with the organization of the World Cup?

• I think the participants and guest should give estimation to the organization. To my mind all goes well, without excesses. And this is what gladdens. This year we organize the third edition of the World Cup in Khanty Mansiysk. The work has been set well and there are no big problems. In case of a problem, we try to solve it right away, sometimes with the help of sponsors.

• Among the sponsors of the World Cup, there are such prestigious and well known all over the world companies, “GAZPROM” is one of them. Was it difficult to establish the cooperation with them?

• It is always good to work with sponsors. The leadership of the companies – sponsors of the Cup – is the people with the State thinking. They fully realize how important it is to develop sport in general and chess in particular, for our region as well as for our country. The statement of the President in which he said that the first consideration is the health of our nation is not just words. We see the result. Thanks to the tournaments in Ugra, we witness the considerable raise of interest to chess in the whole Russia. It makes us happy when we see that a lot of children started being fascinated by this wise game after they have felt the atmosphere of the battles of the World Cup.

EVERY THIRD SCHOOLCHILD IN KHANTY IS A CHESS PLAYER!

• Are you satisfied with chess development pace in your region?

• The dynamics rejoices. During four years of the existence of the Chess Federation of Ugra, the number of children who study chess has increased three times – from 6 to 18 thousand. I don’t count those who have the chess classes at school. About 30% of Ugra schools have chess subject in their program.

• It is a school program subject or a facultative?

• It depends which school we speak about. In 2007 we tried to implement a chess subject into the Regional education system, but in 2008 it was annulled. That is why we have an individual approach to each school. We have a common method to teach children. We provide all schools with the necessary material; we invite teachers of first three grades to have the qualification courses. They can teach chess after that. Our aim is not to make a professional chess player out of each child. Our goal is to acquaint children with this game, to teach them how to think logically, to calculate possible variations. The further development is their choice.

• What is the reaction of the parents?

• We did not receive any negative feedback. Recently we had received a wise, to my mind, proposal – to abandon the mark system in chess subject. It is just a game. And one bad mark could kill in a child his love to chess.

• How will you evaluate if the program was successful or not?

• To give estimation, we should have more than half of Ugra schools implementing chess program. I am sure it will be the case soon.

• We are aware of one good result already: recently the Ugra representative Olya Girya became the World Junior Chess Champion (girls) U-18…

• Yes, and we are very happy for Olga. In addition, there are several chess players who also show good results in the children’s competitions.

• Do you organize many chess tournaments for children?

• There are more than you can count. We organize School tournaments, Championships of Municipal Organizations, Championships of Okrug. I would mention once again that the increase in number of participants can only gladden us, as organizers.

• The Chess Palace that is under construction now, will also serve children?

• Yes, but not only. We will transfer the existing Internet Center of Chess Skills to the new Chess Palace and will create a new institution – Ugra Chess Academy. We will organize many events there: we will teach children, we will have trainings for teachers, and of course, we will organize chess tournaments.

• The Center makes a great impression

• The project of the Center was worked out by one of the most famous architects of the World Erik van Egeraat from Holland. The construction is done by local employees.

• We heard that there is its own professional chess team in your Okrug…

• We started forming our team two years ago. Last year, our team was on 6 th place in the Russian High League. This year they managed to qualify into the Premier League. Next year our team will participate in the Chess Olympiad. Therefore we made a decision to reconsider the team composition to make it stronger. The new team will take part in the Russian Chess Championship in April.

WE ARE READY TO HOST THE OLYMPIAD

• Will you have everything ready before the commencement the Olympiad in 2010?

• Yes, all goes according to the plan. World Chess Federation (FIDE) representatives had some fears that the construction of the new hotel complex will not be finished in time. The FIDE functionaries have twice visited Khanty Mansiysk and they witnessed a dynamic speed of the works. And there are no other reasons to worry. We have the place to hold the competition, we have transport, and we have all facilities to organize the tournament.

• Where will FIDE Congress take place?

• As far as I am aware, this would be the first time when the FIDE Congress will take place in the Chess Center, the place where it should take place.

WE WILL MAINTAIN THE TAKEN LEVEL

• What are your next steps in a position of the President of Chess Federation?

• It is clear that Chess Olympiad is an apogee of our endeavors. But our main task is the chess development in the region. One of the ways to achieve it is to organize such big and massive tournaments like World Cup and Chess Olympiad. But we are not going to stop here. Now, we are going to have negotiations with FIDE in respect of possible organization of other official FIDE tournaments. The question is what tournaments to organize? World Cups, Chess Olympiads, the standards we follow now are very high. And we will do our utmost to maintain the level. I am sure we will find a proper decision with FIDE.

• Are you satisfied with the coverage of the Ugra tournament in the Russian and East mass media?

• Yes, Thanks to chess, Khanty Mansiysk is now known in the countries where our oil and gas are not presented. This is absolutely our achievement.

• Do you have time to play chess?

• Very rarely, but I do. I play chess with my 11 years old daughter. She studies chess in the chess section at school. Her results are obvious: sometimes her daddy faces troubles at the chess board. To continue this theme, I would recollect one story: we had a discussion with her recently. In one of the games my daughter sacrificed a knight. To my mind she made an obvious and I offered to take back. She refused. To my surprise, I lost this game.

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