Snowdrops with a good start against Oldhands

The team of legendary grandmasters (Wolfgang Uhlmann, Fridrik Olafsson, Oleg Romanishin and Vlastimil Hort) will compete in two round scheveningen match called Snowdrops and Oldhands – Czech Coal Chess Match 2012 with the rising generation of women grandmasters (Valentina Gunina, Tania Sachdev, Alina Kashlinskaya, and Kristýna Havlíková) from the 8th December till the 16th December at Hotel Zámeček in Poděbrady.

The time limit of a game is 90 minutes for 40 moves with additional 30 minutes till the end of the game plus 30 seconds for each completed move. The guest of honor is Yuri Averbakh, the oldest living grandmaster of the world. The tournament is held by the society Šach Mat ltd. and the civic association Prague Chess Society.

Snowdrops take R1 with 3,5-0,5

Round 1 was played today with the team of Snowdrops having the white color. Tania Sachdev gave the direction of the young team, by closing her game against Uhlmann at move 29. Valentina Gunina followed suit and won at move 39, right at the same time Vlastimil Hort did the decisive 38… d4 blunder against Kashlinskaya. Havlikova – Romanishin was the longest game of the day, which finished in a 59 moves draw. Thus, the Snowdrops take the lead 3,5-0,5 after day 1.

Tomorrow the Oldhands will have white, the pairings are Uhlmann – Gunina, Olafsson – Sachdev, Romanishin – Kashlinskaya, and Hort – Havlíková.

Official website: www.praguechess.cz

The oldest living grandmaster of the world, 90 years old Yuri Averbakh, is a guest of honor of the chess match Snowdrops vs. Oldhands 2012. On Wednesday the 12th of December at 3 p.m., you can come to listen his lecture about the history of chess game in Europe and in Russia.

Yuri Averbakh was born on the 8th of February 1922 in v Kaluga, Russia. His father was German and atheist, his mother Russian and Eastern Orthodox, Yuri himself calls himself a fatalist. He became an International Grandmaster in 1952 and he qualified to the famous Candidates´ tournament in Zurich in 1953. In 1954 he won the USSR Chess Championship ahead of players including Mark Taimanov, Viktor Korchnoi, Tigran Petrosian, Efim Geller and Salo Flohr. He won also the international tournaments in Vienna 1961 and in Moscow 1962.

For long years, he was general editor of the magazine “Shakhmaty v SSSR“ and president of Soviet Chess Federation. He has published more than 100 chess studies. He wrote also several chess books, mainly about endgame theory and he was interested about the chess history as well. His last book for the moment are the memories of a life in the chess world called Centre-Stage and Behind the Scenes.