Togo team strikes back
Online chess match between Togo national team and diplomatic chess club took place on June 7
The event was organized by the chess federation of the Moscow region, the council of young diplomats of the Russian ministry of foreign affairs and was supported by the Russian embassy in Benin and Togo. The information support was provided by the information agency “African initiative”. This friendly match was dedicated to the 65-th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and Togo.
Team Togo was represented by the players from the national team as well as players who participated in regional and international tournaments, accompanied by the officials from the national chess federation. The diplomatic team was represented by different officials working in the Russian ministry of foreign affairs and foreign Russian institutions abroad.
The match Arena mode was set at 5 mins +3 secs per game. The final result comprised the total number of points won by the 20 best players of the team. The participants played 246 games within 90 minutes and made 17690 moves in total. The fight was brutal as only 4% of all the games ended in a draw.
The audience could watch the match online in three languages: Russian commentary was given by the famous chess commentator and grandmaster Sergey Shipov, comments in French were provided by the Togo chess champion Mikhail Strovsky who took part in the match while a blogger from Kenya Victor Ngani gave comments in English.
The match ended in favour of the Togolese players. The teams were quite close during the tournament however team Togo showed extra speed at the end and increased the difference ending with 293 points against 264.
Personal gold medal was won by the Togolese captain and current national champion CM Mikhail Strovsky (29 points). Other best results included Conte Saidu (26 points) and Benjamin Feda (20 points). The three best Russian diplomats included Alexander Kokorev (24 points), Vyacheslav Petrachev (21 point) and Alexey Yarlykov (21 point).
Best players will be awarded with chess boards signed by the Russian senator and multiple-times world champion international grandmaster Sergey Karjakin and will also have the chance to meet him in a simultaneous exhibition.
“It was so nice to see chess games between the two good teams – commented the chief arbiter of the match, FM Konstantin Bazarov. – It is worth mentioning that the best player of the tournament Mikhail Strovsky was leading the Togolese team in Budapest and has a top-level chess experience. I would like to thank the participants for beautiful games and fair play!”