Chess and Soccer - Ukraine is in the News!

The time really flies. This year my family celebrated 15^th anniversary of our emigration from Ukraine to the United States. I’ve played a lot of chess on the junior level traveling across Ukraine, participating in various training camps as a student and, later, as a coach. These days, I am trying as best as I can to stay on top of what is happening in Ukraine and to stay in touch with my former teammates and opponents.

Since I consider myself a product of Ukrainian (technically, Russian, since Ukraine didn’t become independent until we left) chess school, I am always rooting for them in various team competitions. With one exception - when they compete against team USA.

It was great to see Ukraine winning men’s Chess Olympiad 2 years ago in Calvia. In Turin, 2 months ago, Ukrainian women won Chess Olympiad as well. This is a great success for Ukrainian chess. Now, we are witnessing a first super-tournament held in Ukraine – under the sponsorship of the Ukrainian airline Aeroswit. Here is the link to the official website.

In spite of a couple of last minute replacements, the 12 players participating are a tremendous group, blending youth and experience and playing creative exciting chess.

GM Rublevsky, on the other hand, started slowly – 0.5 / 2, but then went on a amazing streak – 5 wins in a row, including one over Bologan with Black in a long endgame.

Here is one of his victories - a blowout of Indian super-star GM Harikrishna

After 7 games, Rublevsky has 1 point lead with 5.5 / 7. Sitting on 4.5 out of 7 are Bologan and Ivanchuk.

After losing to Rublevsky in round 6, Bologan nearly bounced back at the expense of GM Shirov, but missed a surprising defense:

Also, tied for 2 with +2=4 is GM Ivanchuk. I am big fan of Ivanchuk as we are of similar age and played in the same Ukrainian junior events (even played against each other a couple of times) and were members of various Ukrainian junior teams. However, soon thereafter at a very young age, Ivanchuk became a super-star and the #1 player of the Ukrainian chess. To this day, he remains a super-star, but now shares spotlight with the fellow Ukrainian – GM Ponomariov.

Ivanchuk’s two victories came in a similar fashion - as a result of executing flawless strategy in a static position with advantage.

Black to Move	Mamedyarov,S (2699) - Ivanchuk,V (2731) [D46] Aerosvit-2006 Foros (4), 20.06.2006 With opposite color bishops, neither K should feel secure, but Black has an obvious advantage due to much more active Queen and a better pawn structure. Having extra pawn on the Q-side is nice and it insures various favorable endgames, but will not be playing any role in the near future. Black's plan is to attack White K and destroy what is left of it's coverage. A little accuracy is required to make sure that the White Q remains tied to the 1st rank.37...b5 38.axb5 axb5 39.Bd5 Be5 40.Bb3 f5 41.Bd5 b4 42.Bb3 Kh7 43.Bd5 Kh6 44.Qc1+ Bf4
	45.Qd1 Kg5 46.Bb3 Kh4 47.Bf7 g5 48.Bb3 Diagram  Now it is time!48...Qg3 49.Kg1 Qh2+ 50.Kf1 Qh1+ 51.Kf2 Bg3+ 52.Kf3 g4+ 53.hxg4 fxg4+ 54.Ke3 Qxg2 55.Bd5 Qb2 0-1

In the 7^th round Ivanchuk’s victim was Romanian GM Nisipeanu

Overall, the tournament is very lively with a lot of fighting happening in every round. A couple of examples from the games of young super-stars.

First, GM Mamedyarov demolishes GM Areshchenko’s King-side -

Then GM Harikrishna does the same to Mamedyarov.

So, overall – Ukrainian first chess super-tournament is off to a great start, let’s see what happens in the remaining 4 rounds.

This article wouldn’t have been complete if I didn’t mention a real football (soccer in US). While chess is hot in Ukraine, all of the attention these days is to Germany where Ukrainian national soccer team participates in its first ever World Cup. After disappointing loss in the first game (Spain 4:0), Ukraine won two matches, took the 2d place in the group and qualified to play Switzerland for the spot among the top 8 teams. I used to be a huge football fan back in Ukraine, attending many matches with my father and my friends. Ukrainian head coach Blokhin was a famous striker and I saw many of his games live at the stadium. Honestly, I have seen very little soccer over the past 15 years (my sport of choice these days is American football), but watching Ukraine in the World Cup brings back some great memories. I will be watching the game today (Monday, 6/26 at 3PM Eastern) and I wish them the very best!

Yahoo provides excellent coverage of the World Cup!

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I am looking for 'Ukrainian' copy of British Chess Magazine from last year. If anyone has an extra one, please contact me via my website www.IamCoach.com

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Copyrighted @ 2006 Igor Khmelnitsky

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