Academicians and United Russia party members
The Russian Academy of Sciences team and the team from United Russia social support headquarters based in Kostroma won the RUSleague finals
Video by the MRCF press office.
The final tournament took place on January 27 in the Moscow Chess Federation chess club on the Tverskoy boulevard. 12 teams participated in the event consisting of 5 major players and one reserve player. IA Elena Khristenko acted as an arbiter of the tournament.
Photo by the MRCF press office.
RUSleague went under the auspices of the Moscow Region Chess Federation, Sergey Karjakin’s club as well as the Association of members of youth councils of executive branch bodies. The opening ceremony was marked by the speech delivered by the MRCF president Sergey Karjakin, the federation executive president Albert Minnullin and the event chief organizer Igor Kravchenkov who told about the history of RUSleague creation.
Photo by the MRCF press office.
The audience listened to the Russian national anthem and the bell announced the start of round 1. The fight in the tournament was indeed dramatic and the fate of many matches was decided on the last seconds. This should look surprising as the RUSleague finals included one GM, three Ims, eight FMs and many strong candidate masters.
Photo by the MRCF press office.
The prizes were split in two sections: the winner of the over the board tournament on January 27 and the combined victory in RUSleague. The major struggle in the final tournament took place between the Russian Academy of Sciences team the team from United Russia social support headquarters based in the Kostroma Region who has just recently won United Russia team championship. At the end of the day the United Russia team won the tournament leading by three points. The bronze medals were won by Gazprom team.
Photo by the MRCF press office.
“We liked how both tournaments were organized the one that went online and offline. Players were all very professional and it was hard to play. Our team is relatively young, some players are even younger than 25. How did we manage to win for the second time? We did great and the team did its best”, — told the MRCF press office the captain of the winning team Zaur Aminov.
Photo by the MRCF press office.
All the members of the three winning teams received souvenir medals and cups, exclusive statues and certificates for PBA (Practitioner of Business Administration) additional education in the Russian State Social University. The winning team also received a right to play for free in the competition of the “Game of Kings” business chess club in the Central Chess House.
The combined winner of the RUSleague was selected among the best teams and the combination of their points in online and offline tournaments. The offline tournament points were multiplied 1.5x. Here the team representing the Russian Academy of Sciences dominated the tournament. The silver medals were won by the Leaders of Russia while the bronze medals were won again by Gazprom.
Photo by the MRCF press office.
The winners received exclusive cups and acryl medals with Sergey Karjakin’s clubs logo in united Russia offices, the Moscow region Chess Federation and the Association of members of youth councils of executive branch bodies logos as well as chess boards signed by Sergey Karjakin.
The performance of the team from the Russian Academy of Sciences was commented by the team captain Vladislav Lazarev and FM Ivan Krylov who played on board 1:
“I enjoyed the tournament. The game wasn’t stable all the time but we are generally satisfied with the results. We were able to win the tournament till the very end but didn’t manage to do it at last. The opponents were strong and it was interesting to play. We would like to thank for the organization of such a wonderful event”.
Photo by the MRCF press office.
The closing ceremony was marked by a speech from the founder of the Association of members of youth councils of executive branch bodies Yusup Agzomkhodzhaev who offered souvenir gifts to Albert Minnullin and Sergey Karjakin. In return Albert Minnullin offered Elena Martynova from the Russian Register a chess board signed by Sergey Karjakin.
Roman Shogdzhiev, a young world champion attended the closing ceremony. The musical support of the opening and closing ceremonies was provided by the sound director of Channel One and many TNT channel projects Andrey Goncharov.
Photo by the MRCF press office.
The tournament was closed by the organizer of RUSleague Igor Kravchenkov who promised that next year the scale of the tournament will become even bigger.