Anfield Cup: The New Chess Tradition in Ukraine

For quite a while I have not been able to find the time to update my blog here.

Despite the realities of war, chess life in Ukraine is far from being completely frozen and hopefully later I will be able to write about events in my area (the Odessa Region). But today I wish to say a few words about the new chess tradition in the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv.

The Anfield Pub is a nice, atypical for Ukraine, place for Liverpool FC fans and indeed, football fans in general. The Pub’s owner, Dmytro Zagorovskyi, is a chess player, and in September 2022 he sponsored the 1st Anfield Cup, which was a two-day rapid.

I came from Odessa to play this tournament, and reported for ChessBase afterwards. Now I would like to provide more material about the 2022 event, including annotations to my game versus Vadim Malakhatko who was the main organiser of the tournament, and also selection of photos by the arbiter Lana Afandiyeva (LanaChessPhotography).

My wife Lyuda accompanied me on this trip to the capital, our by far longest travel in 2022.

The game:

Arbiter Oleksandr Prohorov and organiser GM Vadim Malakhatko:

Speaking with IM Artur Frolov, the 1993 Interzonal participant who some time ago returned to chess:

Round 5. A young IM Ihor Samunenkov:

A guest at the tournament, the coach of the Ukrainian national women’s team GM Michail Brodsky (on the right):

In the final round game, which turned to be decisive IM Vladislav Bakhmatsky with Black defeated GM Alexey Kislinsky after the long fight:

Tournament organiser GM Vadim Malakhatko and sponsor Dmytro Zagorovskyi:

Prize winners at the closing ceremony:

And more prize winners at the closing ceremony!

WGM Oksana Vozovic and all other women's prize winners at the closing ceremony:

The 2019 World Senior Chess Champion GM Vadim Shishkin occupied 10th place, but received additional prize for the best result among players under 2300 ELO.

Legend of the Kyiv chess, master Boris Taborov won senior’s prize.

Olena Hrebenyuk, soloist of the National Opera of Ukraine, at the closing ceremony.

...Last but not least, I should say that the new chess tradition is continued in Kyiv, with a series of tournaments this year titled The Grand Prix ANFIELD. But I will leave it to others to cover these attractive events!