On April 2, 2013, the first female advanced chess match in the chess history took place in Kyiv. Ukrainian chess players FIDE World Women Champion Anna Ushenina and Founder of the All-Ukrainian Charity Foundation Olena Boytsun played one game with the time control 30 minutes + 5 seconds for each move.

At the drawing ceremony, conducted by the International Arbiter Oleg Tovchyga, Olena Boytsun took an opportunity to play white. The game lasted 38 moves and ended in a draw in the position with a little advantage for whites according to the estimation of Houdini chess engines.

World Women champion Anna Ushenina stated that it was an interested experience for her to participate in the advanced chess match: «I was very glad to receive the invitation from Olena Boytsun and the «Chess for Children» Foundation to take part in such an extraordinary event. The first female advanced chess match in Ukraine will be a powerful incentive to the popularization of chess in the country and worldwide. We have discussed with Olena the idea of such a match for a long time, and now I am happy that Ukraine finally has such a good initiative like the «Chess for Children» Foundation, and all our dreams can come true. I do believe that this match will become a momentous event in the sport history of Ukraine, and Olena and I will contribute to the chess development by our personal example».

The press conference with the participation of Mr Ravil Safiullin, the Minister of Youth and Sports of Ukraine, took place under the match. «This is the first match in advanced chess in our country, and the first female one in the world. – Mr. Safiullin stated. - The advanced chess is a fusion of classical chess and computer technologies: the participants have the opportunity to estimate the situation with the help of chess computer programms and after that to choose the best move».

The match went under the FIDE aegis. FIDE President Kirsan Iljumzhinov greeted participants of the match live from London via Skype. In his opening speech Kirsan Iljumzhinov underlined great contribution of Ukrainian chess players into the chess development worldwide.

The participant and organizer of the match Olena Boytsun stated: «I am very glad that our event went on the highest level and attracted attention of honourable guests, experts, journalists, young chess players. We chose for our match with Anna Ushenina rapid time control, and at some point during the game I made the decision not to use risky alternatives and to end the match in a draw. I believe that a draw with the world chess champion is a good result».

Mr Victor Kapustin, President of the Ukrainian Chess Federation, stated: «Using the up-to-date computer technologies is the important component for the qualified training of the chess players, especially for children chess education. Therefore, the Ukrainian Chess Federation supports the initiative of the «Chess for Children» Foundation». President of the Sport Committee of Ukraine Mr. Iljya Shevljak also underlined the importance of the chess education and invited all Ukrainian chess players to take part at the first intellectual games in Ukraine that are planned to be organized in the late 2013.

GM Spartak Vysochin commented upon the match.

At the opening ceremony the establishing the Award named after Evgeniy Sozonov for talented children within the charity programm of the All-Ukrainian Charity Foundation «Chess for Children» was announced. The major tasks of the charity programme for 2013-2015 are the development of chess sport, popularization of the healthy way of living among the youth society in Ukraine as well as providing support for talented young chess players.

After the game a tablet computer with pre-installed chess software was raffled among the guests of the event. Twelve-year-old Evheniy Slepchuk from Kyiv won the prize. There was on-line broadcasting of the match via internet on international chess site Playchess.com as well as at http://chessforchildren.org/tfd.htm

The match received a very broad coverage in the media. 8 national, 4 regional TV channels and 3 radio stations accredited for the event; the opening ceremony was transmitted live on the popular Internet web-site, also many national Ukrainian newspapers and informational agencies sent their reporters to follow the game.

Photos by Nikolai Gavljuk

Report at the News program of the Ukrainian national TV channel “Inter”
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=473873722686445¬if_t=like

Report at the Kyiv TV Channel
http://dsmsu.gov.ua/index/en/video/136

“The battle of the century: the blonde, the brunette and two computers”
The article at the national newspaper “Komsomolskaya Pravda”
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=291132177685947&set=a.242154125917086.62447.241964169269415&type=1&theater

KyivPost: first official female advanced chess match ends in thrilling draw (English)
http://www.kyivpost.com/content/sport/first-official-advanced-chess-match-in-ukraine-ends-in-thrilling-draw-322626.html

Photo report at the Lb.ua
http://sport.lb.ua/summer/2013/04/02/195040_perviy_istorii_match_prodvinutim.html

Photo report at the national informational agency UkrInform
http://photo.ukrinform.ua/rus/current/indexa.php?asearch=TRUE&event_id=531317