Belaya Ladya International Final Opens in Sochi on June 1

Programme to be eventful.

On June 1st, 2018, the 49th final tournament of the traditional all-Russian scholastic chess team event Belaya Ladya (also known as White Rook) will start  in Dagomys (Sochi). Since 2015, Belaya Ladya has welcomed teams from foreign countries. This year, more than 100 teams from 78 regions of Russia and 22 countries of the world will take part in the final event. Apart from schoolchildren from Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, England, Estonia, Greece, India, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Moldavia, Mongolia, Romania, Slovakia, there are also players from the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Kenia, Serbia, Sweden, and Turkmenistan. 

The organizers of Belaya Ladya are the Russian Chess Federation and Ministry of Sport of the Russian Federation. The competition is also supported by Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Elena and Gennady Timchenko Charitable Foundation, Renault Russia Company, Federal Grid Company of Unified Energy System (FGC UES), and PhosAgro.

The best foreign players will be given the right to participate in the Aeroflot Open 2019. The best Russian team composed of 5 participants will be presented with a trip to France, thanks to the support of Elena and Gennady Timchenko Charitable Foundation. The team will play a match against the French schoolchildren of the same age. 

Founded in 1969, the tournament Belaya Ladya expands every year. More than 50000 schoolchildren under 14 years of age participated in qualification tournaments in all regions of Russia during 2017/2018 academic year.

A team from orphanages and boarding schools is participating in the final competition for the fourth year in a row. Children from the Boarding School №26 from Ryazan Oblast, who won the Ascension tournament (Sochi, 2018), will join other participants in the Belaya Ladya finals. This was made possible by RCF programme aimed at providing chess education to the children growing without parents. 

On June 1, the opening ceremony of the tournament will take place in Dagomys. The partcipants will be entertained by a special programme and a concert of Matvey Glukhovsky (piano) and Olga Golimovzyuk (violin). 

The competition will be held according to the Swiss system in 9 rounds. The winners will be announced on June 8th. 

Traditionally, a vast cultural and entertaining program will accompany the event. Master classes, lectures, games analysis, mind games, contests, and sport events will be organized. A two-time Russian champion, a three-time Olympic champion Alexander Morozevich, former European champion, coach of the Russian national women’s chess team Evgeniy Najer, and a two-time world champion in chess composition Oleg Pervakov will work with children. Coaches and pedagogues will be invited to take part in a roundtable discussions which will be held by the RCF Executive Director Mark Glukhovsky and other speakers. 

On June 4th-5th, the all-Russian conference of  teachers and pedagogues of additional education, who were taking an active part in the Chess Universal Education in Russia contest, will take place in Dagomys during Belaya Ladya. 

In parallel with Belaya Ladya, the final competition of Chess in Schools project, which is conducted by the Russian Chess Federation together with Elena and Gennady Timchenko Charitable Foundation, will be held. 9 teams from Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, and Pskov regions, Altai Krai, Krasnodar Krai, Zabaykalsky Krai, Chuvashia, Ingushetia, Udmurtia, and will take part in it.  

Tournament page