The Odessa Blitz

On Sunday, July 3rd 2022 the first Mikhail Belakovskiy Memorial blitz tournament took place in the Jewish Cultural Centre Beit Grand in Odessa (Odesa).

The event was organised by the 3-time US women's champion WGM Anjelina Belakovskaia @Anjelina and her brother Leonid, who lives in Odessa, in honor of their father Mikhail (1943-2016). Whom I remember well: Anjelina and I grew as chess players in Odessa in the same years...

IM Dmitry Fingerov, who also participated in the tournament's organisation, became the winner, scoring 8,5 out of 10. IM Oleksii Molchanov was the second with 7,5/10. Maxim Snigurov took the third place with 7 points.

It was my first over-the-board chess event since June 2020, when I also played in an all-play-all blitz. This time I performed poorly: 4/10 (four wins, six losses), the same result was achieved the veteran grandmaster Nikolay Legky who for many years represents France.

(Maybe my play wasn't bad as preparation to the July 5th Titled Tuesday where I drew with Hikaru Nakamura in Round 1 and not without luck won against Grigoriy Oparin in Round 2. Still, lost to Tykhon Cherniaiev in Round 3, etc.)

The tournament was not FIDE rated, fortunately for me. Chess-Results page with players' names in Ukrainian language is at: https://chess-results.com/tnr654294.aspx?lan=12&art=4&turdet=YES
The time control was 5+2. Alongside there was a rapid tournament for seniors, won by Oleksandr Telitsin. My most interesting game possibly was the one that I lost to the eventual winner of the tournament.

All photos from the Mikhail Belakovskiy Memorial on this page are by my wife Lyudmila Zakharova. 
More photos on Facebook

One more link is with Anjelina Belakovskaia, addressing the participants (in Russian language) before the tournament start - video by the Khesed Shaarey Fund: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKmpXqQT0Zc