Yes, it’s the chess event the world’s been waiting for! Later today, in the famous Botvinnik Central Chess Club in Moscow, a team of blonde players will compete in a blitz match against a team of brunettes. The games will be broadcast live on the internet (video link unconfirmed!) from 5pm, Moscow Time.
The regulations of the event are a little out of the ordinary. As well as the players being invited based on the colour of their hair, it’s also stated that:
– an essential condition for being admitted to the tournament is: light clothing for blondes, dark clothing for brunettes.
Fraternising with the enemy: Alina Kashlinskaya and Valentina Gunina follow the dress code | photo: Chess-News.ru
Alina Bivol | photo: chess-news.ru
As perhaps a conoisseur of these events asked on a Russian chess site, why not the reverse?
The stated aims of the tournament are: “the popularisation of chess” and “raising the sporting mastery of female chess players”.
To that end, each member of the 10-woman blonde team will play a 5-minute blitz game against each brunette player
Varvara Saulina | photo: icce.su
(the original regulations suggest mechanical clocks and no incremement, which as Evgeny Surov noted should make it entertaining!). There are prizes both for team and individual performances, though no-one will leave empty-handed as there are also souvenirs for all.
The line-ups suggest that although the blonde players have an edge on the top boards the brunette team has more strength in depth. In fact, if you’re a blonde chess player in the Moscow area you might consider turning up, as for now the blonde team is still one short!
Blondes Brunettes
1. WGM Valentina Gunina 2472 WGM Nazi Paikidze 2425
2. WGM Olga Girya 2425 WGM Anastasia Savina 2383
3. WGM Tatiana Grabuzova 2336 WGM Svetlana Matveeva 2380
4. WGM Irina Vasilevich 2324 WGM Maria Manakova 2336
5. WIM Maria Fominykh 2303 WGM Alina Kashlinskaya 2320
6. WIM Tamara Minogina 2244 WIM Daria Charochkina 2330
7. WFM Alina Bivol 2137 WIM Karina Ambartsumova 2308
8. Nadezhda Potikhoshkina 2167 WFM Varvara Saulina 2286
9. Maria Severina 2049 WFM Tatiana Bogumil 2096
10. ??? WFM Victorya Zarivkina 2059
You should be able to follow the games live at a new Russian website: http://gogolevskiy14.ru/ (the address of the Central Chess Club in Moscow)
A dress rehearsal with Maria Fominykh centre stage | photo: Chess-News.ru
Update: Live games here (3 each round): LIVE BROADCAST
The russians are bringing april’s first joke to a whole new level! even better, they’re not obsessed with magnus’ themed jokes…