Azovski Zori. Berdyansk, Ukraine

Hello, my dear chess friends!

The Ukrainian Chess Federation has postponed my Candidate Master title.

My statistics in the Ukrainian rating list

As I mentioned in my previous  Zero Rated Tale I met the standard in my first tournament, but they say I need to play a total of 21 official games and reach a rating of 2100. Since I've only played 13 games, I'm heading back to the chess board.

To gain more experience, I traveled to Berdyansk, a city on the coast of the Azov Sea, to participate in the local chess tournament "Azovski Zori." The festival included classical, rapid, and blitz chess.

I'm happy to report that I took absolute first place in the blitz tournament with an incredible 8.5 out of 9 points.

It's my first ever tournaments win, and I feel incredibly inspired.

It was even humorous, because in the middle of the tournament the arbiter and other players asked me if I really had no titles. For some unknown reason, I'm still zero-rated in the list of chess players in Ukraine. 

Photo by Irina Mihno, Facebook

Below are two of the games I played online as I prepared for the tournament.