Student chess competition of BRICS countries held with participation of Grandmaster Sergey Karjakin
The chess tournament among the students of the BRICS countries opened on the eve of the BRICS summit in Kazan.
The event, which was attended by the renowned chess player (now Senator of Russia), was attended by Farid Mukhametshin, Chairman of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan, Svetlana Zakharova, Chairman of the Social Policy Committee of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan, Albert Minnullin, Vice President and Executive Director of the Chess Federation of the Moscow Region, and others.
Students of the local universities joined the competition. Chess players from China, India, Iran, Egypt, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Russia were represented. A total of 16 participants competed in the tournament, three of them were Iranian nationals from KFU – students of the Institute of Fundamental Medicine and Biology Saman Soleimani and Ahmadreza Tajiki, and postgraduate student of the Institute of Management, Economics and Finance Bolour Esmail.
Opening the chess tournament, Farid Mukhametshin noted that this sport is popular and actively developing in Tatarstan. The Chairman of the State Council said that there are several chess clubs working in the Republic and expressed confidence that Sergey Karjakin’s club will also contribute to the involvement of pupils and students in this sport.
“By holding such tournaments, we prove that through this sport foreign students enter our friendly fraternal family of the people of Tatarstan,” Mukhametshin noted. “Chess is one of the most accessible sports that unites our youth.”
Senator Karjakin emphasized that Tatarstan has very strong chess traditions.
“The Republic is rich in talented chess players,” he said. “I am sure that the new club will become an additional incentive for young people to practise the game, and perhaps a future world champion will start his way here.”
Saman Soleimani told the interviewers that he has been playing chess confidently for 10 years and that he has been training on his own.
“At the tournament I met students from China, Iran and India. I also had the chance to play with Karjakin,” he shared.
It should be noted that the partners of Sergey Karjakin’s Chess Club in Kazan were the Headquarters of Public Support of the United Russia Party in the Republic of Tatarstan and the Tatarstan Regional Branch of the All-Russian Public Organization Young Guard of United Russia.