Chess Despite the War: The Enfield Cup in Kyiv

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For obvious reasons, there were no significant chess events in Ukraine this year. But perhaps I should apologize for going on so long about a good tournament I attended.

The 1st Enfield Cup was a two-day rapid tournament (15+10) held on September 24-25, 2022 in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine.

Anfield Pub https://www.facebook.com/pubanfield.kyiv is a unique place for Ukrainian fans of Liverpool FC, who may also be fans of Ukrainian football teams). The owner of the pub and the sponsor of the tournament, Dmitriy Zagorovsky, used to be an active chess player and returned to his former passion and took part in the tournament.

Tournament organizer GM Vadim Malakhatko and tournament sponsor Dmitry Zagorovsky Photo: Lana Chess Photography

Interestingly, after all four rounds were played on the first day, the pub returned to its routine and showed a football match between Ukraine and Armenia, attracting many spectators.

A total of 57 players, including 7 GMs, one WGM and 11 IMs, took part in the Anfield Cup (mostly from Kyiv, but some from other cities as well – me from Odesa, for example).

The main organizer of this tournament (and several other important chess events in Kyiv!) was Grandmaster Vadim Malakhatko, who won the World Championship with the Ukrainian national team in 2001.

Most of the grandmasters living in Kyiv took advantage of the opportunity to play in the tournament. However, two generals from the capital of Ukraine, Giorgi Tymoshenko and Igor Kovalenko, could not participate, as both are serving in the Ukrainian army.

FA Lana Afandiyeva acted as the chief referee. The tournament photos I gratefully use in this report are from his impressive Lana Chess Photography project https://www.facebook.com/Chessfotolana/

Another person who is deeply involved in the tournament is referee-supervisor I.A. Alexander Prokhorov.

Artem Frankov, a well-known football journalist in Ukraine, helped in the organization. Being a good non-professional chess player, he also played and scored 4.0/9.

A tight battle between many players of similar strength ended with the sole victory of IS Vladislav Bakhmatsky, who scored 7.0/9.

Decisive game: Bakhmatsky (right, with Kara) defeats GM Alexei Kislinsky in the final round | Photo: Lana Chess Photography

Final position

Rk.		name is	Rtg	FED	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4
1	I	Bakhmatsky Vladislav	2397	UKR	7	43.5	38.5	47.5	6
2	GM	Vysochin Spartak	2455	UKR	6.5	46.5	41.5	50.5	4
3	GM	Andreev Eduard	2386	UKR	6.5	46	41	50.5	4
4	I	Sergey Pavlov	2333	UKR	6.5	44	40.5	47	4
5	GM	Mikhail Golubev	2335	UKR	6.5	42.5	38.5	46	5
6	NM	Semen Grebenyuk	2238	UKR	6.5	41	37	44	5
7	I	Ilya Golichenko	2463	UKR	6	41.5	37.5	44	5
8	GM	Kislinsky Alexey	2301	CZE	6	40.5	36.5	43.5	5
9	I	Arthur Frolov	2348	UKR	6	37	34	40	4
10	GM	Vadim Shishkin	2256	UKR	5.5	47.5	42.5	51.5	4
11	I	Samunenkov Ihor	2354	UKR	5.5	46.5	41.5	50.5	4
12	I	Viktor Sklyarov	2332	UKR	5.5	42	38	44.5	4
13	I	Valery Grinev	2366	UKR	5.5	41.5	37.5	45.5	4
14		Pirig Roman	2055	UKR	5.5	41	38	43.5	4
15		Sklyar Andrey	2341	UKR	5.5	40	36	44	3
16	I	Viktor Dmytrenko	2266	UKR	5.5	39.5	35.5	42.5	3
17	FM	Sergey Stavroyany	2218	UKR	5.5	38.5	36	41	5
18	I	Vyphanyuk Ihor	2340	UKR	5.5	37	33.5	40	4
19	GM	Malakhatko Vadim	2438	BEL	5	45.5	41	49	3
20	I	Maly Alexey	2276	UKR	5	44.5	41.5	47.5	4
21	FM	Sydarika Vladislav	2150	UKR	5	43	39	47	5
22	NM	Boris Taborov	2243	UKR	5	41.5	37.5	45	2
23	NM	Mikhalsky Vladimir	2213	UKR	5	39.5	37.5	41	4
24		Maksym Kazakov	2060	UKR	5	38	34.5	40.5	5
25	GM	Sergeev Vladimir	2315	UKR	5	37.5	33.5	40	5
26		Paryokha Sergiy	2161	UKR	5	36.5	34	38	4
27	FM	Petro Popovkin	2161	UKR	5	36	32.5	38	4
28	WGM	Oksana Vozovich	2338	UKR	5	32.5	29.5	35.5	5
29	WFM	Eshchenko Ulyana	1911	UKR	4.5	42.5	39	45.5	4
30	AGM	Dmitry Levchuk	1986	UKR	4.5	39	35	40.5	4

…57 participants. Source: chess results

I am happy with my result and happy to play this tournament: the last tournament I played in Kyiv was 25 years ago! It was good to meet so many chess colleagues during these tense and sad times…

The rising star of Ukrainian chess, a truly great talent, I.M. Igor Samunenkov, was almost always among the top ranks and showed an interesting chess game. Only a loss in the final round prevented him from entering the Top 10. But he was rewarded as 10th-placed Vadim Shishkin won another, helping 11th-placed Samunenkov to become one of the runners-up. – winners.

WGM Oksana Vozovich, kickboxer, 2006 women’s champion of Ukraine and member of the national women’s chess team, is currently working a very serious job at the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) and has almost stopped playing in tournaments. But this time she participated and won the 1st women’s prize.

Games played on boards 1-6 were broadcast live and saved forever. I have selected 24 of these games and partially annotated them. It wasn’t intentional, but tournament winners Bakhmatsky and Samunenkov appear often – with 6 and 7 games.

I should also link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0afEYTSupxs to the Kyiv TV report from the second day (September 25).

At the closing ceremony, it was hoped that the tournament would be traditional, and I can support that!