The chess family remains on the note of Russia

Photo: David Llada/FIDE

Gints Narogs, “Latvijas Avīze”, JSC “Latvijas Mediji”

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The 44th World Chess Olympiad concluded this week in the Indian city of Chennai, once called Madras, located on the Bay of Bengal. With the participation of Latvian teams. Also the re-election congress of the International Chess Federation (FIDE).

Namely, the Russian citizen Arkadys Dvorkovich was convincingly elected as FIDE president for the second term. Only Ukrainian chess grandmaster Andriy Baryshpolets competed with him, as another candidate, Bahar Quatly of France, withdrew his candidacy before the vote.

157 FIDE members voted for Dvorkovich, 16 for Baryshpolets, who said in his speech before the vote: “You too, Arkady, are responsible for what is happening in Ukraine now. You are responsible for strengthening the Russian government and the Russian war machine. And how will we, the chess world, allow this?”

In the midst of this, Dvorkovich has, of course, condemned the events in Ukraine, FIDE has temporarily suspended Russian chess players who support the war from its ranks, and the Russians did not compete in the Chess Olympiad either. In addition to the work of Dvorkovich and his team, in which India’s best chess player of all time Viswanathan Anand, who will now be Dvorkovich’s deputy, is of great importance, the refusal of money from Russian sponsors is also mentioned.

Appreciate what has been done

Grandmaster Dana Reizniece-Ozola was also at the epicenter of the FIDE congress, as the managing director of the organization. “I was not surprised that Dvorković had so much support. The members did not vote for or against Russia, but for Dvorkovich as the head of the organization.

During the previous four years, he has proven that he is a good leader. From an organization that was completely corrupt, with wasted resources, closed bank accounts and a sanctioned president (Kirsan Ilumzhinov), FIDE has become a transparent and professionally managed organization.

There is still a long way to go to the ideal, but the organization has changed and become much more transparent. People appreciate the changes, including the introduction of a development fund for less developed federations, social programs that did not exist before.

It is chess in schools, for women, for refugees, for people with disabilities, chess in prisons. Professional chess is also organized, where the prize funds have increased. In the context of the Russo-Ukrainian war, what mattered to many was what FIDE was doing when the war started. FIDE was quick to make decisions, one of the first to abandon events in Russia, as this year’s Olympics were scheduled there. The Indians managed to organize everything in an incredibly short time.

Refused Russian sponsors, banned Russian teams from playing in international matches, Russian chess players can only play individually under the FIDE flag. Dvorković also condemned the war. This shows that FIDE has a clear geopolitical stance. This has been important to me, if it had been otherwise, I wouldn’t want to work there,” Reizniece-Ozola told Latvijas Avīze.

Lower than four years ago

In Chennai, the Latvian men’s national team, in which Toms Kantāns, Normunds Miezis, Ritvars Reimanis, Maksims Golubovskis and Edgars Ungurs competed, took 57th place in the “Open” group in the competition of 188 teams. Ladies – Laura Rogule, Ilze Bērziņa, Agnesa Ter-Avetisjana, who is only 14 years old, Nellija Maklakova and Melanija Jansone – ranked 47th among 162 national teams. Four years ago, when the previous Olympics were held, ours were higher – men in 45th place, and women in 36th place. Latvian chess had a great tournament in 1992 – fifth place for men, 12th place for women.

“There is a generational change in the Latvian teams and it is always more difficult to fight during the transition period. I was personally pleased by Agnesa Ter-Avetisyan, who, playing at the third table, significantly improved her rating and won the title of women’s FIDE master. She is our Latvian chess star, the main thing is not to become conceited and work. The start of the teams is certainly not a failure, because they were lower in the ranking before the tournament.

The perspective is. I myself had a very funny feeling, because being right there at the Olympics, I was rarely in the games hall for the first time, all the energy was taken up by the organization of the congress,” says Reizniece-Ozola, who herself was once the leader of the Latvian team. She emphasizes that the most emotional moment of the competition was when, after the success of the women’s national team of Ukraine, the anthem of this country played.

The “Open” class was unexpectedly won by the Uzbek team, which is a big sensation, because the oldest member of the team is 27 years old, while the youngest one is 16. The leader of the team was Nodirbek Abdusatorov, who at the age of 17 is considered the new superstar of chess. Armenia, the third India B team, finished second, leaving behind the main home team. In the top tenth place was Lithuania, which had only the 35th best start rating.

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