The Week of Chess Art in Dnipropetrovsk

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012


Hi everyone,

A special chess event lasting a full week has drawn much applause in Ukraine. The unique event 'Week of Chess Art' was held in Dnipropetrovsk Region of Ukraine from April 19-25. It included:

• Chess tournament with more than 5000 players from the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, Russia, Belorus, and Israel. 
• Dnipropetrovsk native and Guinness World Record certified GM Alik Gershon's 80-board simul.

• Chess exhibition 'Move by Move' devoted to history of chess in region at the local museum. It covered the history of chess activities in the region and biographies of famous chess players like Jose Raul Capablanca, Mikhail Botvinnik, and Mikhail Tal.
• For the temporary exhibition in the Museum the Ukrainian Chess Federation provided the Hamilton-Russell Cup, which is the main prize of the World Chess Olympiad. It was made from the personal funds of the President of the British Chess Federation Federic Hamilton-Russell for the first World Chess Olympiad, held in 1927 in London. The Ukrainian chess team won the temporary Cup in the Chess Olympiad 2010 in Khanty-Mansiysk.
• In 'Battle for Dnepr' children from Dnipropetrovsk art schools presented their work. A special catalogue of all the pieces was coordinated by Irina Filatova.

This special event was organised to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Dnipropetrovsk region and to develop the intellectual movement in the region. The simul lasted more than six hours. The grandmaster lost seven games and drew 17.

The governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Oleksandr Vilkul, praised the event and said it was important for the development of the region. On the invitation of the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Alexander Vilkul, and the Ukrainian Chess Federation, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov also visited the opening ceremony of the event at the Potemkin Palace. 

Young artist Polina Usenko also presented her work 'Chess Maharajah' to Mr Ilyumzhinov. The work was created using an interesting technique of combining graphics, pastels and gouache on black paper.

Several other events were organised as well - international chess composition tournament at the National Center for Youth Aerospace Education, Internet competition for solving chess tasks among pupils of Dnipropetrovsk region, blitz tournament among veterans in Shevchenko Park etc., the traditional school team tournament 'Memorial of A.V. Sinitsyn'. For many years the event is financially supported by entrepreneur Andrey Filatov, a native of Dnipropetrovsk and the main sponsor of the World Chess Championship match between Vishwanathan Anand and Boris Gelfand to be held in Moscow in May 2012. 

The children's tournament brought together teams from Russia (St. Petersburg, Orel), Belarus (Minsk, Gomel), and Ukraine (Donetsk, Lugansk, Poltava region, and 10 clubs from Dnipropetrovsk). The winners of the tournament became the team of Sports School - 9 (Dnipropetrovsk), the second place took the team from the School named by B. Spassky (St. Petersburg), the third place got the team from Lugansk. All winners, as an additional prize, would get an opportunity to attend the Anand-Gelfand match in Moscow.
Selected TV-reports:

1. Ukrainian national channel ICTV
2. Ukrainian national channel UT-1
3. Dnipropetrovsk regional Channel 11 

* Photos and information: Press Department of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Administration, Marketing Directorate of the Ukrainian Chess Federation

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