Thailand game is going on

On December 6, Russian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary in the kingdom of Thailand Evgeny Tomikhin met the delegation of the Moscow Region Chess Federation

Chess players from the Moscow Region came to Thailand to participate in Asian School Championship that takes place on December 1-11. On December 6 young chess players Alexander Fedosov, Alexandra Morozova and Kirill Minnullin (they are all students of Gymnasium named after E.M. Primakov) accompanied by their parents and under the supervision of the Moscow Region Chess Federation Executive Director Albert Minnullin took an exciting visit to the Russian Embassy in Thailand and met Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary in Thailand Evgeny Yurievich Tomikhin. This was an exciting opportunity for our sportsmen to learn more about the work of diplomats and the life of their fellow countrymen abroad.

During the meeting our juniors talked to the Ambassador about close relations between the causes of a diplomat and a chess player. Both require strategy, planning, an ability to predict the consequences of one’s actions and a talent to make adequate decisions and evaluate all the possible variants. Evgeny Tomikhin said that he would be glad to see people with such a character and perseverance among his colleagues.

The meeting was also attended by the President of the Thailand Chess Association Sahapol Nakvanich and the First Secretary of the Russian Embassy in Thailand Veniamin Yarkin. The friendship between our two federations started not a long time ago but is getting stronger day by day – and this visit proves it once again. The Ambassador mentioned the importance of such communications and showed his readiness to support this bilateral chess collaboration.

At the end of the meeting the Russian diplomat made a photo with the chess players while Albert Minnullin gave Evgeny Tomikhin a special gift from multiple World Chess champion and the President of the Moscow Region Chess Federation Sergey Karjakin. The gift was a chess board signed by Karjakin as a souvenir.

After the talk with the Ambassador young chess players went to see the Russian embassy school where they examined the schoolrooms and became friends with the children of embassy staff. Schoolchildren asked our chess players lots of questions concerning their life in chess as it is quite a rare chance to see participants of international tournaments in a face-to-face talk especially if they are as young as themselves. The visit was especially interesting for the schoolchildren as Thailand at the same time was hosting a tournament among the embassy schools where the Russian team is also among the participants.

At the end of the day Alexander Fedosov, Alexandra Morozova, Kirill Minnullin and very young Timofey Babkin who is also among the participants of the Asian School Championship in Thailand, performed a simultaneous game against schoolchildren of the embassy school and then had even a chance to analyze a few games played. After this all the schoolchildren received souvenirs from the Moscow Region Chess Federation while young chess players and their parents were awarded with a golden medal of friendship and small souvenirs that will remind them of Thailand.

The day was positive indeed: young chess players did not only show excellent results at the Asian School Championship but also came back with new knowledge, impressions and a bright example of chess uniting people of different cultures and professional background.

Such an exchange between young sportsmen and children of the Russian diplomats has become a valuable moment in the life of juniors while the Embassy made a big step to improve the bilateral relations between our countries through culture and sport.