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A blitz tournament for children was held at the Women's World Championship |
 A traditional blitz tournament for children of Sochi Olympic Sports School #11 was organized in the SCC Galactica on March 28.
Alexander Tkachev, tournament director of the World Championship, showed his territory to the guests. There was a standard program – playing hall, RCF Chess Museum exposition, press center, and it all made kids very excited.
They even organized an improvised press-conference, interviewing Alisa Demchenko, one of the strongest players of the school. A boy who acted as a host of the press-conference was asked whom he considers the best chess journalist. Without hesitation he named Mark Glukhovsky, the former chief editor of 64-Chess Review. The press-conference went on flawlessly and was followed by a blitz tournament.
The first three places went to girls. Darya Zlydneva finished first, her sister Ekaterina took the second place, Alisa Demchenko was third.
Evgeny Ilyenkov, the school principal, told us about his school:
– It exists for more than 20 years. We are located in downtown Sochi with branches in two other districts. There are 570 students aged from 5 to 17 studying chess. We have 15 coaches including national master Yury Ivanovich Lobanov, grandmaster Kirill Bryzgalin, and international master David Gochelashvili. Many of our graduates continue playing chess professionally. Some of our students show excellent results in junior events, winning various local competitions. Four of them will participate in the higher division of the Russian Junior Championships, and 50 will play in the second division.
More than 200 of our students have visited the Women's World Championship. They enjoyed everything – playing hall, grandmaster commentary by Sergey Shipov and Ilya Smirin, rapid tie-breaks, and the brilliant master class by grandmaster Pavel Tregubov.
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