Despite the War. Geller-100 Blitz Tournament was held in Odessa, Ukraine
On Saturday, 29th November 2025, the final blitz competition dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of the famous Odessa (Odesa) Grandmaster EFIM GELLER, who in the past was officially recognized the best athlete of Odessa of the 20th century, was held in the main regional chess club at Kanatna St., 95. The players who passed the qualifying stage, which took place a week earlier, were joined by specially invited participants.
The final tournament, which was organised with the support of VST bank (the head of the bank, Vadim MOROKHOVSKY, is the president of the Odesa Region Chess Federation), became the strongest local competition in recent years. Probably, since the Efim Kogan Memorial in 2000, which was a blitz tournament as well.
A total of 56 chess players competed. The tournament was judged by a team of international arbiters led by Oleksandr PROKHOROV (Lviv).
The moves of the top 10 games of each of the 11 rounds were broadcast live. (The previous Odessa event with the live transmission of games possibly was the ACP Rapid World Cup 2010!).
The main eight prizes were won by:
1. IM Viktor SKLIAROV (Kyiv), 2. GM Alexey KISLYNSKY (Czech Republic), 3. CM Maxim SNIGUROV (Odessa), 4. NM Oleg BUDNIKOV (Kyiv region), 5. CM Artem DOVHAN (Odessa), 6. NM Vasiliy LYAKH (Kryvyi Rih), 7. FM Leonid STAROZHYLOV (Kyiv), 8. IM Dmitry FINGEROV (Odessa).
Additionally awarded were:
Nika ZAVEZION (Odessa) for the best result among women; CM/NM Vladyslav GARSKY (Odessa) for the best result among participants U16; Daniil SHYHAVTSOV (Odessa) for the best result among participants U12; IM Viktor DOVZHENKO (Odessa) for the best result among veterans 65+; GM Mikhail GOLUBEV (Odessa) for the best result among veterans 50+.
As I can judge from my own games even, there were many interesting encounters in the tournament. I’m providing one short example below, and otherwise refer readers to this week’s The Week in Chess database.
Being involved in the organisation of the tournament, I’m glad that everything went smoothly, and we even had no air raid on that day.
Below are some more photos by Lana Chess Photography:
(A guest of the tournament, GM Viacheslav Eingorn)
(Skliarov-Golubev, Rd 8)
Full tournament results:
https://s1.chess-results.com/tnr1283432.aspx?lan=1&art=4&turdet=YES&flag=30&SNode=S0
Available games: The Week in Chess 1621
https://theweekinchess.com/html/twic1621.html#37
IM Viktor Skliarov’s Twitch stream from the event:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2630770223
Video - Youtube shorts, 2 min.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YJNYl6eJKU4
by my wife Lyudmila Zakharova (on the photo):
