Schoolchildren from Saint Petersburg Win Jubilee 50th Edition of Belaya Ladya

In 2019, the open all-Russian school chess team event Belaya Ladya is celebrating its 50-year jubilee. The event final was taking place in Dagomys, Sochi, on June 1 – 11.



This edition saw teams from 80 regions of Russia and such countries as Armenia, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Egypt, England, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Moldova, Mongolia, Namibia, Romania, Slovakia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

The team representing orphanages and boarding schools was participating in the final of Belaya Ladya for the fifth year in a row. Representatives of the Lulpan center for orphans and children bereft of parental care from the Republic of Mari El earned their way into the final after winning the Ascension tournament.

The competition was a nine-round Swiss. A team lineup was four players (with at least one girl) aged up to 14 years inclusive.



With 26 points out of 36, the victory goes to team Saint Petersburg (School #31 of the Vasileostrovsky District). Place two with 24.5 points is with team Mongolia, place three with 23.5 is with team from the Novosibirsk region. The same result of 23.5 is shared by teams from the Sverdlovsk region and Moscow.

The schoolchildren from Saint Petersburg have won the main prize from the Russian Chess Federation and the Elena and Gennady Timchenko Charitable Foundation, i.e. a trip to Cap d'Agde to play a friendly match against the top French team. Congratulations to the winners: Kirill Putrenko, Igor Ismagilov, Yurii Khodko, Dariana Loviagina, and their coach Sergey Klimov! Team Mongolia is entitled to participate in the famous international tournament Aeroflot Open to be held in Moscow in February-March of 2020.



Before the start of Belaya Ladya, Russian President Vladimir Putin had sent a message of greetings to participants, organizers, and guests of the event. The message reads, in part:

“Chess has always enjoyed special popularity in our country. We are rightly proud of the outstanding representatives of the Russian school of chess who celebrated it throughout the world by their triumphant victories. The famous Belaya Ladya tournament, which marks its 50th anniversary this year, made a significant contribution to chess in Russia. For many of its participants the tournament became a crucial milestone on their ascent to future achievements, allowed them to prove themselves and gain competition experience. It is certainly important that in the last few years our children are facing competition from young chess players from other countries who are interested in chess and committed to achieving impressive results”.

FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich greeted the participants of the 50th Belaya Ladya final on the first competition day. He wished them to raise their professional level, find new friends, and enjoy a fine weather in Dagomys.



A match between school teams Russia and India was also part of the event, the lineup of each consisting of two boys and two girls born 2005 and later. Representing the home team were Volodar Murzin, Andrey Tsvetkov, Viktoria Kirchei, and Alisa Nur-Mukhametova. Standing out in team India was the world's youngest GM D. Gukesh. It was eight rounds of classical (with 2 points for a win and 1 point for a draw) and equally many of blitz chess (with 0.5 points for a win and 0.25 points for a draw). The classical section ended 33:31 in favor of Russia. The blitz section of Monday was taken 9:7 by team India. With the overall score being equal 40:40, success in the classical section has landed victory to team Russia.

An extensive additional program featured a representative international conference Chess in Schools of Russia and Around the World and an international seminar for chess coaches and teachers (organized by GM Sergey Janovsky).

Running in parallel with Belaya Ladya was a closing competition of the Chess in Schools project, co-organized by the Russian Chess Federation and the Elena and Gennady Timchenko Charitable Foundation. The closing competition featured 11 teams from the Altai, Zabaykalsky, and Krasnodar Krais, from the Bryansk, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Pskov, and Tula regions, as well as from the republics of Ingushetia, Udmurtia, and Chuvashia. Celebrating a victory is team Zabaykalsky Krai.

A many-time world chess composition champion Oleg Pervakov held problem and study solving contest. Running daily were master classes in Russian and English from such GMs as Sergei Rublevsky, Mikhail Kobalia, Ernesto Inarkiev, and Pavel Maletin. In store for children during their free time was a choice of sports and intellectual games, not to mention such outdoor relaxation activities as taking swims in the sea or the pool.

The tournament was co-organized by the Russian Chess Federation (RCF) and the Ministry of Sport of the Russian Federation. The competition is also supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, the Elena and Gennady Timchenko Charitable Foundation, the Federal Grid Company Unified Energy System (FGC UES), and PhosAgro.

Founded in 1969, the all-Russian scholastic chess team event Belaya Ladya has been gaining in the number of participants over the last few years. Participating in qualification tournaments run across all regions of Russia from September 2018 to May 2019 were over 50000 schoolchildren aged under 14. Beginning with 2015, the final has been elevated to the status of an international event.

Tournament page

For reference:

Belaya Ladya is an annual All-Russia chess tournament for teams of educational institutions. It was founded in 1969 and is organized by the Russian Chess Federation and the Ministry of Sport of the Russian Federation under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and Science. The tournament is held with the support of the Elena and Gennady Timchenko Charitable Foundation. Eligible for participation are pupils younger than 14. The tournament is held in several rounds; the best teams from the participating regions play the final games. Prior to 1991, Belaya Ladya, along with Leather Ball and Golden Puck, was tremendously popular, and millions of Soviet schoolchildren played qualifying rounds. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the tournament took a pause lasting longer than a decade. Belaya Ladya was revived in 2004. The mission of the tournament is to popularize chess among pupils, find talented young players and develop the creative and intellectual capacity of young people.

Russian Chess Federation (RCF) is a public non-profit organization that brings together individuals and chess federations of republics, regions, federal cities, autonomous regions and districts of the Russian Federation. The mission of the Russian Chess Federation is to promote and popularize chess in the Russian Federation. The RCF was founded on 15 February 1992 The RCF organizes the annual All-Russian children’s chess tournament Belaya Ladya, the Championship of Russia and other chess tournaments. In 2012, the RCF launched the “Chess in Museums” program. In 2014, the RCF launched the Chess to Orphanages program. The first competition between teams from orphanages and boarding schools took place in Zhemchuzhina Grand Hotel in Sochi on May 2-9, 2016

Official website: http://www.ruchess.ru/en/   

Elena and Gennady Timchenko Charitable Foundation is one of the biggest family charitable foundations in Russia. The family of Elena and Gennady Timchenko has been doing charity both in Russia and abroad for more than 25 years. In 2010, the Timchenkos founded the charitable foundation in order to achieve long-term progress in philanthropy. The Timchenko Foundation focuses on promoting active longevity, developing amateur children’s sports, solving the problem of the social orphanage, and development of the Russian regions by means of culture.

The Foundation supports people who are changing their lives and the World for the better.

Official website - http://timchenkofoundation.org/en/  

Federal Grid Company of Unified Energy System (PJSC FGC UES) – is one of the largest electricity transmission company grid of the world. The Company’s assets include about 145.9 thousand km of transmission lines with capacity up to 1,150 kV (PTL) and 958 substations with more than 351.9 GVA. The company maintains and develops the grid system and supervises grid facilities and infrastructure in 79 Russian regions.

The company is a part of PAO Rosseti, the largest power holding of Russia which owns 80.13% of the company’s shares. The company includes more than 22 thousand workers. More than 60% of the employees have a higher professional education. Chairman of the Management Board of FGC UES is Andrey Murov.

Since 2016, the company has been the general sponsor of the Russian chess national teams.

Official website: http://www.fsk-ees.ru/eng/ 

PJSC PhosAgro is a traditional partner of the Russian Chess Federation. PhosAgro group is an absolute leader in the field of delivery all kinds of fertilizers in the Russian market and is one of the three largest producers of phosphate-based fertilizers in the world.

Its core line of business, including a phosphate raw materials, 39 brands of fertilizers, feed phosphates, ammonia, sodium tripoluphosphate, is used by consumers of 100 countries of all inhabited continents. The priority distribution areas, besides Russia and the CIS states, are Latin America countries, Europe and Asia.
The general partner of the Russian Chess Federation since 2010. Andrey A. Guryev, CEO and Chairman of the Management Board of PJSC PhosAgro, is the RCF Vice-President and a member of the RCF Board of Trustees.

PhosAgro group is a strategic partner of FIDE in holding the Grand Prix Series as part of the World Championship Cycle 2019-2020. PhosAgro sponsored the World Chess Championship Matches in Sochi, New York and London, the Candidates Tournament in Berlin, and the Moscow Grand Prix leg (2017).

At the same time, the company continues to promote chess in its presence regions by opening chess classes in sponsored schools and kindergartens as well as financing the education and training of chess pedagogues.

Official website: https://www.phosagro.com