Evening of Ukrainian-Icelandic Chess Friendship!
Chess friendship between Ukraine and Iceland has very deep roots.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice, chess magician GM David Bronstein (born in Ukraine, became a chess master in Kyiv, 1939) celebrated his 50th and 70th jubilee in Iceland in the circle of local chess community.
The Godfather of Icelandic Chess GM Fridrik Olafsson used to call David Bronstein “My Teacher”.
Nowadays chess ties between two countries are strong enough too.
For instance, National Team of Ukraine`s chief coach GM Oleksandr Sulypa @flycont plays for Reykjavik Chess Club.
FIDE senior trainier GM Adrian Mikhalchishin runs a program for cooperation between Ukrainian and Icelandic chess coaches.
GM Margeir Petursson runs a business in Ukraine (as an owner of Lviv Bank) and he is one of the biggest sponsors of chess in Lviv region.
On photo: GM Margeir Petursson (third from the right) with 13 Ukrainian grandmasters in Lviv
Regarding chess.com in particular, there are quite good relationships between Team Ukraine and Team Iceland.
When Live Chess World League has been just launches, Iceland didn`t have its team ready to participate so some strong Icelandic players joined Team Ukraine and helped us to win our first title in Season 2.
In its turn Ukraine doesn`t have its club in ProChessLeague
So many Ukrainians support Icelandic Club – Reykjavik Puffins
Admin of Team Iceland Sigurbjorn J. Bjornsson @sigurbjorn recently told me he was going to visit Kyiv for some business issues.
So I proposed to meet him and show chess life in the capital of Ukraine.
By the way it was a good occasion for a dozen of Team Ukraine players to get together and celebrate our recent victory in Live Chess World League.
Moreover, Sigurbjorn was a hero of Season 2 superfinal match superfinal match where Team Ukraine won Team Russia for the first time and become LCWL champion.
Sigurbjorn himself won an epic game versus strong Russian grandmaster and streamer Roman Ovetchkin.
The fraze by GM Ovetchkin during his stream #Guys, it seems I blundered a checkmate! became a legendary hashtag within community of Team Ukraine.
So it was a pleasure for us to meet and organize Evening of Ukrainian-Icelandic Chess Friendship
Here is a report about the event
Participants:
FM Sigurbjorn J. Bjornsson @sigurbjorn, IM Alexey Pelekha @rainspistols, IM Dmytro Semenov @dmitry_semenov, CM Oleksiy Khrinovskyi @oleksiy_khrinovskyi, Alexander Matlak @AlexanderMatlak, Roman Kifliuk @romakif, Serhiy Shchukhomet @shchukhomet, Mykola Fuzik @ninifu, Max Golota @mxgolota, Dmytro Nikolaienko @dmytro_nikolaienko, FM Vsevolod Rytenko @rytenko_v, Roman Davymuka @ roman_davymuka
.
Part 1. Chess venue in Taras Schevchenko park
This legendary outdoor place in Kyiv is obligatory to visit for all chess players. It serves as a hub for local chess community for at least 50 years.
Chess corner in Taras Schevchenko park was mentioned in numerous books, some chess legends as GM Leonid Stein (1934-1973) and GM Eduard Gufeld (1936-2002) liked to visit it.
Nowadays you can also meet here well-known local chess players as well as gamblers and amateurs.
Some official chess events are usually held here like Kyiv Chess Day-2019 I mentioned in my blogpost
This year the smallest in the world monument for Chess Players was installed.
So we moved there immediately on meeting Sigurbjorn in Kyiv.
Despite it was dark, cold and windy some brave chess amateurs kept on their battles.
Among them I recognized old gambler Uncle Yura and proposed him to play blitz with our Icelandic guest.
In order to unwritten rules I informed him that opponent was a strong masters so he played for a small guaranteed fee.
I should say that not every master can beat Uncle Yura in OTB blitz, but Sigurbjorn did his best.
You can watch this tenacious battle on the video:
Sigurbjorn agreed that the game was double-edged.
He was also surprised to play with old Soviet chess clock that was very popular in his country around 30-35 years ago. 
Part 2. Chess Academy (Шахова Школа)
Sigurborn as a chess coach was interested to watch some chess training in Ukraine.
Fortunately we have got an invitation to visit Шахова Школа - one of the main chess clubs in Kyiv.
Moreover, lots of my Team Ukraine mates work as a coaches there, for instance IM Dmytro Semenov @dmitry_semenov, FM Oleksandr Pryhodko @ukrop2019, CM Oleksiy Khrinovskyi @oleksiy_khrinovskyi
On photo: from the left IM Alexey Pelekha @rainspistols; Serhiy Shchukhomet @shchukhomet; CM Oleksiy Khrinovskyi @oleksiy_khrinovskyi; FM Sigurbjorn J. Bjornsson @sigurbjorn, Max Golota @mxgolota
When we came a lecture for a group of young candidate masters has just started.
Three student was in training room and around ten were connected via Skype.
I introduced our guest Sigurbjorn to youngsters and told them some interesting facts about Iceland based on my presentation
Then we all together analyzed a good game FM Sigurbjorn Bjornsson – GM Alexander Zubov played in recent LCWL match Team Ukraine vs Team Iceland
The game was very instructive for student and they enjoyed it, especially some strong maneuvers by Sigurbjorn:
16.Bxb6! 22.Rg5! 23.Rxg7+! 26.Bf5! and obviously 27.d6+!
As Sigurbjorn mentioned he is probably the first ever Icelandic chess player who has beaten a guy rated >3000 on chess.com! 
Then Ukrainian and Icelandic coaches had an informative discussion about training process, organizing of chess life, attraction of children to chess e.t.c.
Finally, the key point was exchanging by presents.
Our Icelandic guest received a book Understanding the Sicilian by GM Mikhail Golubev @mikhail_golubev with autograph.
It turned out that Sigurbjorn has already read book by GM Golubev but another one - Understanding the King`s Indian.
So now he is probably the biggest fan of Mikhail Golubev in Iceland!
Ukrainian side got nice presents as well: Icelandic beer and fish! 
Good stuff, I should say!
Part 3. Pub
After Шахова Школа we decided to visit pub where Sigurbjorn`s friends from Icelandic community met to watch a football match Turkey-Iceland.
While watching football guys from Team Ukraine celebrated our recent victory in Live Chess World League (despite TD @ThomasJEvans hasn`t finalized results of Season 4 yet!).
Unfortunately, the match finished with a draw 0-0 but Iceland utterly needed to win for qualifying to EURO-2020. 
To cheer up out Icelandic friend, chess historian Mykola Fuzik @ninifu presented to Sigurborn his book about Isaak Lipnitsky (1923-1959), outstanding chess theoretician from Kyiv.
All Team Ukraine players wrote some regards to Sigurbjorn on book cover.
Then we had some beer and a lot of blitz!
First we played some fun pair blitz games and then started knock-out tournament.
Nobody could beat Sigurborn almost during an hour!
On photo: Blitz FM Sigurbjorn Bjornsson @sigurbjorn vs Roman Kifliuk @romakif
Oleksiy Khrinovskyi @oleksiy_khrinovskyi had to call for help his friends FM Vsevolod Rytenko @rytenko_v and Roman Davymuka @ roman_davymuka in order to save an image of Ukrainian Chess…
On photo: FM Sigurbjorn Bjornsson @sigurbjorn vs CM Oleksiy Khrinovskyi @oleksiy_khrinovskyi
Near the midnight I was a hightime to say goodbye.
On photo: from the left Serhiy Shchukhomet @shchukhomet; Max Golota @mxgolota; Alexander Matlak @AlexanderMatlak; FM Sigurbjorn J. Bjornsson @sigurbjorn; Mykola Fuzik @ninifu; CM Oleksiy Khrinovskyi @oleksiy_khrinovskyi
.
But as for me it has been done pretty much just for one evening!
Friends, did you like chess adventures of Sigurbjorn in Kyiv? 
