Chess Columbus in Russia

Colombia chess federation president Weymar Muñoz visited our country for the first time last weekend on the invitation of the chess federation of the Moscow region. The visit is organized by the Russian embassy in Colombia

Right after the arrival of our Colombian guest three of his dreams came true. On his way from the airport he fulfilled his old dream and had a face-to-face talk with the 12-th world champion Anatoly Karpov as he has been his devoted fan since a very young age. Then he talked in Spanish to grandmaster Vladimir Dubrov with whom he had a good talk during a chess tournament in Colombia 20 years ago. Finally with the help of his father he congratulated 10-years old Roman Shokdzhiev with his IM title, the youngest ever international master in the history of chess.

Right after dropping off at the hotel our Colombian guest visited “The Russian pub” accompanied by the hosts represented by the Russian and Peruvian grandmaster Georgy Castaneda, Sergey Karjakin’s chess school director Mikhail Korovin, our chess diplomat Veniamin Yarkin and executive director of the chess federation of the Moscow region Albert Minullin and a wonderful translator Maria. During the first evening the guest tasted various Russian dishes and wonderful drinks. We won’t say which ones.

Weymar Muñoz traditionally spent his first morning on the Red Square and saw Saint Basil’s cathedral, GUM’s famous building and took a walk in Zaryadye park. Then the guest took a tour to know the Federation Council and was told about the history of the building and the principles of work of this government body about how the legislation procedures work and about relations with the Russian regions.

The major event of the visit took place in the Council: Live signing of the Memorandum of collaboration together with the president of the chess federation of the Moscow region Sergey Karjakin. After this the presidents played a friendly game that ended in a draw and discussed future collaboration plans. Being the organizer of the World youth Olympiad Weymar invited the team of the Moscow region to participate in it. All the negotiations were finally set during an official lunch.

The same night was spent to walk along the Stary Arbat street and buy souvenirs and a good dinner together with executive directors of Moscow chess federations and the chess federation of the Moscow region Artem Akhmetov and Albert Minullin.

On the next morning Mr. Muñoz took part in the official opening ceremony of the “Moscow sport day and night” event in Luzhniki. He also participated in a simultaneous exhibition against Sergey Karjakin. He was happy to see all the activities on different sites around the stadium.

Later he took his personal experience to share with future participants from Colombia and participated in a Moscow cup blitz tournament. Along with the abovementioned executive directors he awarded the prize winners including many-times world champion Valentina Gunina and charming Maria Fominykh and participated in the closing ceremony.

“I’ve spent two wonderful days in Moscow. Tomorrow early in the morning I am leaving but I will take with me the most wonderful memories. I hope to see you in Colombia and our chess players can also play in Moscow!” – said Mr. Muñoz during the closing ceremony of the tournament.

To finish with he had a brief negotiation with top-level chess coaches of the chess federation of the Moscow region, Merited coach of Russia Vladimir Potkin, best children’s coach of Russia Jakov Geller, the youngest Russian grandmaster Ivan Zemlyansky’s coach Yaroslav Prizant and famous Sergey Dolmatov who also participated in a tournament in Colombia 40 years ago.

Apart from souvenirs bought in Arbat, Weymar  Muñoz was given presents from the chess federation of the Moscow Region and others, given personally by Sergey Karjakin as well as a piece of our warm welcome and bright memories about hospitable Russia!