On November 9 a students’ tournament “Chess semester 2019” finished in KBTU. This traditional tournament took place for the fourth time. Various teams from different universities of Almaty and even a team from the Kazakh-Turkish University from Turkestan took part in the contest. There were 27 participants’ teams which is a record for the students’ competitions in Kazakhstan!
When the start of the tournament was announced there was silence in the hall, only ticking of the clock revealed that the game is on. Each of the participants had 15 minutes for thinking and 10 seconds were added for each move that they made.
There were 3 rounds conducted on the first day. Leadership was gained by the KBTU-1, MUIT-1, MUIT-2 teams that won all of their rounds.
On the second day there were 4 rounds. An interesting occurrence took place in the 4th round: the random draw made the two teams MUIT-1 and MUIT-2 each other’s opponents. The first combined team of MUIT of course was stronger, but the second one was able to show serious opposition to the exceeding in number opponent. However, the opposition did not work in this case. Within five minutes (!) after the beginning of game the result was announced 4:0 in favour of MUIT -1. This episode, of course, raises the question: What about Fair play principles?!
The second day was, as we call it, “a consolation match” for some weaker teams. Due to the fact that the number of the participating teams was odd, the weakest for that moment team in each round received a so-called ‘bye’ – victory without a game.
After the second play day the teams MUIT-1 and KBTU-1 gained the first places, getting ahead of the rest opponents. The match between them ended up with a draw and from then on the main goal of the leading teams was not only winning the rest of the matches, but to gain as higher points in them as possible, thus, improving their additional indicators.
On the last day the leaders did not commit any blunders and came to the finish with the equal number of points – 17 out of possible 18. According to the regulations of the tournament in such cases the individual points of the teammates are counted as an additional indicator. There were 33 point for MUIT-1 team and 32.5 for KBTU -1 team. The minimal difference in points made the MUIT-1 team the winners. The second place was granted to KBTU-1 team and the third place was granted to MUIT-2 after a tough match with KazNU-1 team.
The winners in the individual all-around score became:
1st chessboard – Timur Nurzhanov (KBTU -1)
2nd chessboard – Yerzhan Ilyashev (KazNU -1)
3rd chessboard – Bakhytzhan Kembayev (MUIT-1)
4th chessboard – Diana Asaubayeva (KBTU -1)
Winners in the team and individual all-arounds received valuable prizes; and all the participants without exemption were awarded with trophies. During the ceremony of closure representatives of several teams addressed the organizers of the competition – KBTU, with warm words.
The “Chess semester” tournament gains momentum. Next year we hope to meet even more guests.
Dana Arslanova, BS, 1st year
