Official website: http://chess2012.ugrasport.com
It’s not a shame to learn from Ugra!
The first vice-president of the Moscow Chess Federation and adviser of the FIDE President tells about his impressions about the Women’s World Championship.
– You visited four major chess competitions in Ugra. In which aspects this tournament differs from the previous ones?
– One of the secrets of Khanty-Mansiysk is that the organizers somehow make every new event cooler than the previous one. They never become complacent and always find motivation and resources to progress. This requires the most serious effort. And Ugra is famous not only for organizing top events, but also for their work on promoting chess. If I remember correctly, about 16,000 Ugra schoolchildren are involved in the “Chess at schools” project – this is an excellent result!
– What do you think about the results of the championship so far?
– This is the only minor disappointment for me at this world chess forum. As the first vice-president of Moscow Chess Federation I am mildly unhappy to see all Moscow players already being knocked out. However, this is not the end of the world. Sasha Kosteniuk, Valentina Gunina, Olga Girya, Svetlana Matveeva, Katya Kovalevskaya (I include her in this list because she plays for the Moscow team “Our heritage”) are not only beautiful women, but also chess players with unlimited potential. They proved it many times. No luck this time – but next time they’ll do better.
On the other hand, I support many players who continue fighting for the title. For instance, Antoaneta Stefanova is in my opinion a model example of beautiful woman and professional sportsman.
– Is it comfortable for you to follow the course of events from another city?
– Of course I would prefer to go to Ugra. Today I met some chess friends, and we agreed to fly there for the final match no matter what. However, everything is organized in such a way that one can follow the championship even from thousand kilometers away! I watched the colorful opening ceremony on Youtube, and was deeply impressed. It was really cool! The media coverage of the championship is very extensive, both in Russia and abroad.
When I have some free time, I enjoy the online commentary by grandmaster Sergey Shipov (in Russian) and former World Champion Alexander Khalifman (in English). I guess Peng Zhaoqin’s commentary is also instructive and sharp-witted, however, I cannot be 100% sure as I haven’t learned Chinese yet. In any case addressing the multimillion army of Chinese chess fans is a great step forward.
– Were you surprised by a number of sensations in the early rounds?
– I just read a New York Times article about Hou Yifan’s early departure from the tournament. However, let us not state the obvious about women’s chess and unpredictable nature of elimination format. I think gods are smiling on her. One needs to have very light and bright karma to become a World Champion at the age of 16, even with all the Hou Yifan’s outstanding talents. I think she may become the best woman player in history, but she needs time. And occasional failures like the one in Khanty-Mansiysk will only make her stronger.
Humpy Koneru should definitely win something serious in women’s chess. In Khanty-Mansiysk she was very unlucky to meet Natalia Zhukova, who arrived in excellent form. By the way, I intentionally did not watch the match between Zhukova and Ju Wenjun: I am friends with both and feel very sorry for one of them going back home after the match.
– What do you think about the most intriguing match between Kosintseva sisters?
– Being in their shoes, I would abstain from playing and just toss a coin to determine the winner. But maybe that’s why I am who I am, and they are the best players in our country and on the planet.
– Is there anything Moscow Chess Federation can learn from your colleagues from Ugra?
– It is never a shame to learn from Ugra Chess Fedeation and its president Vassily Filipenko, my good friend and the mayor of Khanty-Mansiysk. Any chess federation in the world can learn something from them! I would also like to thank the Ugra Governor Natalia Komarova for her involvement in promoting chess in her region, Russia, and all over the world.
– It seems the Moscow Chess Federation made serious progress after the elections of its new president Vladimir Palikhata.
– He set a new goal to return Moscow the reputation of the world chess capital. In this sense we are probably competing with Ugra right now. We have enough resources to reach this goal: strong and ambitious president, who is one of the best managers in the country, sincerely loves chess and is ready to invest his time and money, excellent professional team, a lot of help from authorities on many levels, and, last but not least, huge support from the “Our heritage” fund and its president Victoria Korol.
We set certain criteria to track our performance, and one of them is the level of organization of events. Organizing and running tournaments is not enough, if they go by unnoticed by general media and do not help us grow the players base.
The Moscow open is coming – one of the main chess brands of Moscow, a big festival that gathers more than 1,500 participants. We are happy to invite all chess players, including those playing in Khanty-Mansiysk right now. Welcome to Moscow open!
Kosteniuk lives in Switzerland. Isn’t that why she played in the Swiss championship?
Can we ditch the drivel about ‘beautiful women’ please! This is a chess event. The beauty is in the moves. Why the **** do we need to discuss the appearance of the players? It is not done in events where most are men, whether or not the men are attractive!