New Year's Party Takes Place in Central Chess Club in Moscow
Popular artists entertained children and adults.
On December 23, the Central Chess Club in Moscow hosted a New Year’s party organized by the Russian Chess Federation for its friends, partners and members of their families. An ancient mansion on the Gogolevsky boulevard turned into a real Ice Palace decorated by innumerable snowflakes and garlands.
RCF President Andrey Filatov and his wife Elena were meeting the guests in the hall on the first floor. Children and adults were given bright masks and other New Year’s accessories and proceeded to the Oak Hall, where they were met by the heroes of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. A classical music was played on the Grand Hall on the second floor, where a popular artist and TV presenter Alexander Oleshko was reading A. Pushkin’s fairy-tales, which were illustrated by sand pictures created by an artist by hand. Then a real Father Christmas and a Snow Maiden appeared on the scene and lighted a Christmas tree as it should be.
After the children’s programme finished, a concert with classical and popular music, jazz, and even Gypsy songs started on the second floor. The spectators warmly greeted the lead singers of the Moscow Academic Theatre of Operetta Ivan Vikulov and Pavel Ivanov, a famous jazz saxophonist Igor Butman and his band Litejazz, and other singers.
According to the Chinese calendar, 2019 is the year of the Earth Pig. The guests had a unique opportunity to take a photo with a piglet and get a magnet with an image immediately.
The party was attended by FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, Member of the RCF Board of Trustees, Chairman of the Management Board of Gazprombank Andrey Akimov, RCF Vice-President Pavel Chinsky, entrepreneur Oleg Skvortsov with his wife Natalia and their son Philip, film director Tigran Keosayan with his wife Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the television news network Russia Today, Deputy Director General of Renault Russia Tatyana Redko, Deputy Director General of Timchenko Foundation Igor Baradachev with his family, grandmasters Boris Gelfand, Peter Leko, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Pavel Tregubov, Sergey Karjakin with his wife Galiya and their son, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Alexander Morozevich, Sergei Rublevsky, Valentina Gunina, Olga Girya, Elmira Mirzoeva, Alexander Motylev, Alexander Riazantsev, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Vladimir Potkin, Alexander Volzhin, Mikhail Kobalia, Evgeny Miroshnichenko, and many others.
All the guests were given memorable presents from the Russian Chess Federation, including a colourful chess manual for children.
Photos by Eteri Kublashvili
