The Moscow Region wins the second match!

On July 6 “Arturs” ship welcomed the second friendly match between the Moscow Region Chess Federation and Moscow Chess Federation

This good chess tradition was established a year and a half ago when GM Sergey Smagin offered the Moscow Chess Federation to play against us on 10 boards in the famous “National” hotel with its windows looking towards the Kremlin. This year we acted as organizers. Failure was not an option and the return match took place on a double-deck ship during a relaxing tour along the Moscow River.

Similar to the last year members of the two federations management board took the places at the chess tables. There were more grandmasters this time. Out of 24 players half were GMs. Wonderful sounds of violin welcomed the guests.

The Moscow Region Chess Federation was represented by the president and GM Sergey Karjakin, executive director Albert Minnullin, vice-president GM Vladimir Potkin, women’s team head coach Jakov Geller, junior teams head coach GM Igor Yagupov, online chess school manager FM Mikhail Korovin, Karjakin’s chess academy branch in Domodedovo manager FM Igor Kirillov, regional teams coach IM Sergey Grishchenko, women’s commission chairwoman WGM Irina Sudakova, MRCF website chief editor WIM Ekaterina Smirnova, while regional teams coaches GM Boris Savchenko and Alexandra Grishchenko acted as substitute players.

In order to salute our players and to wish them all the best our sports minister Dmitry Abarenov came to the bay. During the cruise the Moscow Region chess team was actively supported by the State Duma deputy Alexander Tolmachev (the Moscow Region) and the leader of “United Russia Young Guard” Diana Alumiants.

The Moscow Chess Federation was represented by the president Sergey Lazarev, executive director IM Artem Akhmetov, vice-president Sergey Smagin, head coach of Moscow teams GM Alexander Zlochevsky, MCF member GM Vasily Papin, MCF member Vladimir Dobrov, MCF member IM Andrey Tsvetkov, trainer’s commission member Oleg Kharitonov, MCF member WGM Alina Bivol, MCF secretary Daria Shevchenko, while MCF member GM Mikhail Mozharov and the chess school chief manager acted as substitute players.

The chief arbiter of the match was senior coach of the Moscow Region teams Igor Kovpak.

The lower deck was occupied by chess tables while the guests could enjoy snacks and dinner on the upper deck. As expected, the fight was extremely tough. The first two rounds ended in a draw 5:5. We should mention Albert Minnullin’s victory in round 1 against his colleague Artem Akhmetov from the Moscow Chess Federation. His point played a pivotal role! Round 3 was won by the Moscow region and then Moscow stroke back. The leader was unclear for quite a long time. The teams ended in a draw by round 10 with a score of 45:45.

The Moscow Region won a decisive round and the whole match and finished with 51:49 (this score proves that the fight was indeed tough), so we won this historic event for the second time. Among the best players of our team are Sergey Karjakin 9.5 points out of 10 and Boris Savchenko who scored 8 points out of 9. The Moscow chess team could be happy with Andrey Tsvetkov’s performance: 7 out of 10.

During the award ceremony the Moscow Chess Federation guests received souvenirs from the MRCF while our team won an exclusive cup. Both teams enjoyed a design cake.

After the end of the match everyone could enjoy a chess disco watching the Moscow nightlife on the upper deck.