You're reading: Ukrainian grandmasters give 20-board chess simultaneous in Shevchenko Park

How else to commemorate the nation’s first official Day of Chess in Ukraine except with a chess game – 20 in all.

Kyiv’s Shevchenko Park early on July 20 hosted
a 20-game simultaneous chess exhibition given by two Ukrainian grandmasters
rated in the top 100 in the world. Pavlo Elyanov and Zakhar Yefymenko each
played 10 players simultaneously with the white pieces.

Ranked 50th in the world with a
2694 rating, Yefymenko won nine and drew one game. His counterpart, ranked 52
in the world with a 2693 rating, won eight and drew two games.

Organizers from the Ukrainian Chess
Federation said they recruited a mix of young and old players from around Kyiv
starting at 6 years of age, including a woman and a few candidate masters to
give the grandmasters a challenge.

Candidate masters usually have ratings that
range from 2000 to 2200, and do occasionally get lucky against grandmasters.

Grandmaster Pavlo Elyanov sets aside a captured piece in one of his 10 simultaneous chess games in Kyiv’s Shevchenko Park on July 20 where he won eight games and drew two (Sohei Yasui)

“I’m happy with my result. My (9-1) score
reflects the opponents I faced,” said Elyanov after his 10 simultaneous chess
matches. “I’m not tired. I’ve given exhibitions to more people that have lasted
three to four hours.”

For his part, Yefymenko said that he faced
serious opposition in 5 of his games. But in the end, “I grinded out a victory
in four of them through superior play as the games progressed and conceded a
draw against a tough opponent,” added Yefymenko.

Ukraine’s parliament on Nov. 1, 2011 voted
to designate July 20 the day of chess in Ukraine to coincide with the
international day of chess the same day.

Ranked 50th in the world, Grandmaster Zakhar Yefymenko thinks over a move against the only female participant in the simultaneous chess exhibition in Kyiv’s Shevchenko Park on July 20 (Sohei Yasui)

There are 7,000 members of Ukraine’s chess
federation, 5,300 of whom are active chess players, the federation said.  As of July 1, Ukraine has 70 international
grandmasters, nine of whom are ranked in the top 100 in the world, according to
FIDE, the world chess federation.  Grandmaster
is the highest title a player can attain in the world of chess.

Lviv Oblast native Vasyl Ivanchuk is
Ukraine’s top ranked player and 10th in the world with a 2769
rating. Ukraine is the current chess Olympic champion having won the Olympiad
in 2010 that takes place every  two years. Both Elyanov and Yefymenko were part
of the 2010 chess Olympic gold medal team.

Twenty-fourth ranked Ruslan Ponomariov is
the only Ukrainian to have ever been world chess champion. He is currently
taking part in an elite, invitation-only chess tournament in Dortmund.

Kyiv
Post staff writer Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected]