The usual chatter of kibitzing at Shevchenko Park’s chess pavilion gave way on July 20 to the successive clanks of chess clock buttons being pressed.
Many of the
park’s regulars were there, including some of the hustlers, but they were
interspersed with other chess enthusiasts to compete in an eight-round,
5-minute blitz tournament organized by the Ukrainian Chess Federation to
celebrate International Chess Day.
In the end,
23-year-old FIDE Master Valeriy Grinyov, a part-time professional chess player
and coach, won the grueling event in which players are given five minutes to
beat their opponents in games that usually feature tactics, quick calculation, and traps
in lieu of long-term strategic play.
Adjacent to
the pavilion, two chess masters each gave a 10-player, simultaneous chess match
exhibition: Grandmaster Zakhar Yefymenko and FIDE Master Yulia Osmak.
Osmak went
undefeated, while Yefymenko won 8 and drew 2 to some strong candidate chess
masters.
This was
the second time that Ukraine commemorated International Chess Day, following
parliament’s recognition of the holiday in a Nov. 1, 2011 vote – FIDE, the world’s
chess governing body, designated July 20 the international day of chess in 1966.
Last year
organizers staged a simultaneous exhibition match, but this year added an
exciting blitz tournament as the main attraction that featured the young and old,
men and women, amateurs and semi-professional players.
Kyiv Post editor Mark Rachkevych can be reached
at [email protected].
