11 February 2019

PhosAgro Group and Russian Chess Federation Sign Agreement on Continuation of Strategic Partnership

Ceremony takes place in Central Chess Club.

 
PhosAgro Group, a Russian vertically integrated company and one of the world’s leading producers of phosphate-based fertilizers, decided to continue its strategic partnership with the Russian Chess Federation (RCF). 

On February 11, a respective cooperation agreement was signed by Andrey A. Guryev, CEO and Chairman of the Management Board of PJSC PhosAgro, and Andrey Filatov, the RCF President, Head coach of the Russian national men's chess team, in presence of Dmitry Peskov, Chairman of the RCF Board of Trustees, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration of Russia, Press Secretary for the President of Russia, and Arkady Dvorkovich, FIDE President, Chairperson of the Skolkovo Foundation. The event took place in the Central Chess Club. The amount of support is 30 million rubles in the current year.

Dmitry Peskov thanked the PhosAgro company for its great contribution to the development of chess in Russia and in the whole world. According to the Chairman of the RCF Board of Trustees, it is very important that the company supports not only professional but also mass, and primarily children's, chess. "Since Andrey Filatov has become the RCF President, many successes have been achieved", underlined Dmitry Peskov. "Russia has conducted and is conducting many international chess events of the highest level. Soon Khanty-Mansiysk, which will host the 2019 World Cup and the 2020 World Chess Olympiad, will become the capital of the world chess. And it is pleasant that a strong chess federation has reliable and strong partners like PhosAgro. During the World Economic Forum, President of Russia Vladimir Putin, in particular, noted that our fertilizers are the cleanest ones in the world, and PhosAgro is one of the companies which produces them". 
 
FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich: "It is a great honor for me to be a part of the Russian Chess Federation. Together with Dmitry Peskov we are working in the RCF Board of Trustees and we always make efforts to develop chess in Russia and in the whole world. I have first-hand knowledge that it is very important for FIDE to have such a serious strategic partner as the Russian Chess Federation. RCF supported FIDE when we were holding the King Salman World Rapid and Blitz Championships in Saint Petersburg in December 2018. We organized the tournament only in three weeks before its start. I think that RCF can be a good example for other chess federations in these terms". 
 
RCF President Andrey Filatov thanked Dmitry Peskov and Arkady Dvorkovich for the kind words and underlined that the Russian Chess Federation is always ready to help FIDE. "I hope that this year RCF will organize the World Rapid and Blitz Championships in Russia", said Mr. Filatov.
 
CEO and Chairman of the Management Board of PJSC PhosAgro Andrey A. Guryev: "I hope that we took a right strategic decision to become partners with RCF back in 2010. We have much in common with chess: we always think over our strategy beforehand and we try to be one step ahead of our competitors. It was our strategy that helped PhosAgo become one of the most effective companies in a global branch of fertilizers, increase the production by 1.5 times in the recent 5 years, and take on markets in 100 countries. 

For many years PhosAgro has supported chess. Besides the partnership with the RCF, sponsoring world chess championship matches in Sochi, New York, and London, we open chess classes in schools and kindergartens in our presence regions to popularize chess. In the years of our cooperation, the Russian children have gained more than 100 medals in the youth competitions, and Russian chess players won various world championships. I hope that our cooperation will continue to be fruitful for the Russian chess school and the world chess crown will come back to Russia in the near future". 
 
RCF President Andrey Filatov thanked PhosAgro and Andrey Guryev in person for their strategic support of chess: 

"PhosAgro Group is our traditional partner. The company helps us develop chess globally, ranging from the children's competitions to the organization of the world championship matches. Together with CEO of PhosAgro Andrey Guryev, who is also RCF Vice-President, we have completed many tasks recently. Of course, we are happy with this solid cooperation and we hope that chess will grow more large-scale and interesting thanks to this strong company's support", says Andrey Filatov.
 
RCF President also said to the journalists that the Central Chess Club would become the venue for the FIDE Grand Prix leg in Moscow (May 16-30, 2019).
 
"It will be the first event of such a big scale which will take place in our Chess Club after its renovation", says Andrey Filatov. "We hope that it will bring luck to our players". 
 
After the press conference, Andrey Guryev, Dmitry Peskov, Arkady Dvorkovich, and Andrey Filatov answered many questions from the journalists. Press Secretary for the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov expressed hope that Vladimir Putin would visit the final tournament of the Open all-Russian school team competition "Belaya Ladya" in Sochi in June, if the schedule would allow.

"Of course, we will invite him because "Belaya Ladya" has grown stronger as a tournament and has become a big international competition". 

Besides chess, PhosAgro is a long-term partner of the Russian Olympians Foundation, the Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation, the Moscow Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation, the Russian Swimming Federation, the Regional Sports Judo Federation of Saint Petersburg, and a sponsor of, in particular, Severianka volleyball club (Vologda region), Avtodor basketball club, and Turbina speedway team (Saratov region) thus contributing to international successes of the Russian sports. 

 
Photos by Vladimir Barsky