The new champions

A record number of 162 chess players and 80 Congress delegates and officials from 27 different countries attended the just-ended 15th World Individual Chess Championships for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Deaf-Blind people in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

13 out of the 27 participating countries have won medals contested in the ten (10) different categories of the Championships.

Here is the list of the winners in the ten different categories:

Blitz – Yehuda GRUENFELD (Israel)
Men – Vladimir KLASAN (Serbia)
Women – Tatyana BAKLANOVA (Ukraine)
Boys (up to the age of 19) – Mateusz LAPAJ (Poland)
Girls (up to the age of 19) – Viktoria ALIYEVA (Russia)
Deaf-Blind – Aleksandr SLEPTSOV (Azebaijan)
Seniors – Men (age 60 and over) – Sergey SALOV (Germany)
Seniors – Women – Lyubov KIREEVA (Russia)
Open – Men – Vladimir ZABOLOTNY (Ukraine)
Open – Women – Monika WILGOS (Poland).

The 31st I.C.S.C. Congress took place, during which, among the other things, the two major decisions were made:

the old name of the organization of the International Committee of Silent Chess (I.C.S.C.) was changed to the new one such as the International Chess Committee of the Deaf (I.C.C.D.),

the city of Yerevan, Armenia, was awarded the hostship of the next 16th World Individual Championships, which will take place in the year of 2016.

In addition, his Excellency Mr. Kirsan ILYUMZHINOV, the FIDE President, had the honor of addressing the Opening Ceremony of the Championship in sign language.

For more news and photos of the Championships, please visit

http://www.fide.com/component/content/article/1-fide-news/6493-opening-ceremony-of-15-icsc-individual-deaf-championships.html

http://www.chessdeafrussia.narod.ru/photoalbum65.html