Big blitz tournament: Independence Cup “Team Ukraine – 2000 members”!
Last Saturday players of Team Ukraine celebrated on chess.com two holidays simultaneously.
On 24th of August there was our big national holiday - Independence Day of Ukraine
A couple of days before, Team Ukraine has reached a symbolic level of 2000 members and entered into top-10 LCWL teams by size.
Anyway, for Team Ukraine it was both holiday and jubilee worth celebrating.
And the best way of celebrating for chess players is obviously a good tournament on chess.com!
The tournament had a prize fund thanks to our sponsors:
1. Youtube Channel Chess Team Ukraine TV
2. Ukrainian Children Chess Federation (UCCF)
3. Our player Dmytro Pylypenko @pylypenkodmytro, owner of Paleo trademark Paleor.com - professional fossil and paleontology dealer
79 players of Team Ukraine participated in the event, including 14 titled players and even 3 grandmasters:
- Mikhail Golubev
- Natalia Zhukova
- Evgeny Sharapov
On photo: GM Natalia Zhukova @Tashik – European Individual Champion (2000, 2015), World Blitz Champion (2012), winner of Chess Olympiad and World Team Championship
Prizes were given to:
- Top-5 winners
1st place – FM Leonid Starozhilov @leonid_starozhilov (Kherson)
2nd place – GM Mikhail Golubev @mikhail_golubev (Odessa)
3rd place – CM Vadim Petrovsky @petrovskiy_vadim (Mukachevo)
4th place – CM Yury Galichin @novik89 (Novomoskovsk, Dnipro region)
5th place – IM Illya Golichenko @im_golichenko (Kyiv)
· Best player rated 1600-2000
Konstantin Kostikov @kostyn1964 (Kryvyi Rih)
· Best player rated under 1600
Yevgen Mikhaylovsky @pzs1985 (Piskivka village, Kyiv region)
Now a couple of words about winners and they good games in the tournament!
FM Leonid Starozhilov @leonid_starozhilov is a leader of Team Ukraine in Live Chess World League.
He also participated in numerous events of Team Ukraine and won lots of our training tournaments like mentioned.
Crucial game won by Leonid was against very strong player and streamer NM Alexey Yarovinsky @aborigen_came
Stream of Alexey from the tournament you can watch here
Tensious positional fighting for initiative finished in mutual zeitnot in favour of @leonid_starozhilov due to nice tactical trick 33.Rb8+! Kh7 34.Rxb1!
This tragic moment you can see on screenshot
GM Mikhail Golubev @mikhail_golubev was among first high-profile grandmasters who joined Team Ukraine and helped us to win our titles in Live Chess World League
GM Golubev is a champion of Ukraine (1996), well-known journalist, author and public activist.
Mikhail won this very sharp and double-edged game against strong blitzer and streamer Andrei Ermolaev @PchelkinVK
The last mistake in the game was made by @PchelkinVK. After 35….Rh1+ and Rxe1+ position would be almost equal. But after 35….Rh7 Black was completely lost due to mating attack
12-years old CM Vadim Petrovsky @petrovskiy_vadim is one of the most promising Ukrainian juniors.
Vadim has already represented Ukraine on World and European Junior Championships and was very close to win a medal.
Hopefully, Ukrainian chess will receive a new chess grandmaster in the near future.
This sharp game was won by @petrovskiy_vadim by smart attacking maneuver Rb1-b5-c5!
CM Yury Galichin @novik89 is a chess trainer from Novomoskovsk town, Dnipro region.
He is one of the most valuable players of Team Ukraine in Live Chess World League
Yury managed to win a miniature versus IM Illya Golichenko @im_golichenko
It was a typical opening catastrophe even strong player can experience in blitz
IM Illia Golichenko @im_golichenko is a champion of Team Ukraine in bullet in 2019
Stream by @UAArtur from superfinal of this exciting event you can watch here
Illia is sertified psychologist and runs his own practice.
Probably, both chess and psychological proficiency helped Illia to win this game.
Our legendary grandmaster Natalia Zhukova @Tashik was a half step to win the tournament but unfortunately blundered in decisive game of the last round versus future triumphant Leonid Starozhilov
But Natalia gave master-classes for lot of our players in the tournament, especially for admin and streamer Artur Sevosteenko @UAArtur
Independence Cup “Team Ukraine – 2000 members” was our warming-up before important match of Live Chess World League against Srbija Tim.
And it worked perfectly! 
But about supermatch Team Ukraine - Srbija Tim and Week 5 in LCWL I will tell you in my next blogpost… 
