GrossMeister Morshyn Cup in Ukraine: Surprising Results
The GrossMeister Morshyn Cup was a Swiss system rapid tournament which took place on the 15th of November in the known resort town in the Lviv oblast. GrossMeister here is the name of a sponsor firm, located nearby in the city of Stryi, which produces nice chess sets and other games.
For me, it was my first over-the-board chess since June 2024. I'm grateful to organizers and sponsors for the invitation.
Overall, it was a very notable Ukrainian tournament by present standards of the big war time - with many talented young players participating along with masters and five grandmasters. In my view, the final results were quite surprising. Places 1 and 3 were occupied by the young players from the Ivano-Frankivsk oblast.
(Photo: Nataliia Palahitska)
Top results (120 participants overall):
In my encounters I had many funny fragments (and one entirely funny game).
Variation from the game (the moves 25...Bg7-e5!? 26.Rf1-e1? were not really played; instead, I opted for 25...Bxc3 with a forced draw). Black to move!
Being afraid of youngsters, both games that I lost were against veterans. 
In MG v IM Alexikov (decided after many errors later) my choice in the position on the diagram was between Qh3 and Nxe7 where he has Qxd1. What would you do as White?
Tournament links:
https://s1.chess-results.com/tnr1268177.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=9&flag=30&SNode=S0 (results)
https://www.chess-morshyn.com/grossmeister (official website)
https://www.chess.com/en/events/grossmeister-morshyn-cup (available games)
Ostap Spas v Mikhail Golubev, R5 - video (from IM Skliarov's Morshyn streams at twitch.tv/im_skliarov): https://www.facebook.com/reel/706151765881901
My wife Lyudmila Zakharova's video from the tournament (Youtube Shorts):
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/D8suUAnfACo
Lyuda has contributed to this report and our trip massively. More on Morshyn and the tournament on my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/mikhail.golubev
***
In Morshyn and everywhere in Ukraine these days... 
