Radio Romania International Sports club

Grand Master Kyrill Shevchenko

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Ștefan Baciu, 15.03.2023, 13:45

Grand master Kyrill Shevchenko, representing Romania, walked away with silver at the European Individual Chess Championship held in Serbia’s Vrnjacka Banja, over March 2nd and the 14th. After 11 rounds played stepping on a step of the podium were Grand masters Alexey Sarana (a Russian chess-player who entered the competition under the flag of the International Chess federation, FIDE), Kyrill Shevchenko (Romania) and Daniel Dardha (Belgium). The three were awarded 8.5 points each, yet they stepped onto a different step of the podium, according to the Bucholtz score, which is calculated by adding the raw scores of each of the opponents they played and multiplying this total by the player’s raw score. Therefore, Kyrill Shevchenko’s success is all the more noteworthy, since the 23rd edition of the European Individual Chess Championship held in the resort of Vrnjacka Banja brought together over 490 chess players of 40 federations affiliated to the European Chess Union. Chess players from Russia, whose chess federation has been suspended because of Russia’s aggression over Ukraine, were allowed to play under the neutral flag of the International Chess Federation.

Kyrill Shevchenko has recently got transferred on Romania’s list of competitors. We recall that in 2021 Shevchenko won the gold medal with the team of Ukraine, at the European Teams Chess Championship.

Kyrill Shevchenko was born on September 22nd, 2002 in Kyiv and is rated as one of wonder kids of chess. Shevchenko was awarded the international Grand master title when he was 15 years, 9 months and 23 days old, thus earning a place among the youngest Grand masters in the history of chess. Having been transferred to Romania’s list, Shevchenko has recently played in Romania’s Individual Chess Championship, becoming a national title holder. Kyrill Shevchenko became a European vice-champion and the welcoming he enjoyed when her returned to Bucharest was very special. Kyrill Shevchenko stated that he met lot of wonderful people. He worked with the national team’s head-coach, Bosnian-born Belgium Grand master Ivan Sokolov something he got thrilled with and which fueled confidence in him. Kyrill went on to say you had no choice other than having a bracing start, as in such tournaments, with almost 500 players competing, you need to be able to win 5, 6 matches in a row, so you can relax a bit afterwards and then proceed again, in a bid to win the top position. Kyril admitted to the fact that for him, the start was rather sluggish, yet in the long run he won 4 matches, which placed him on a par with the first place. Kyrill went on to say his biggest dream was to reach his full potential. Kyrill Shevchenko’s remarks have been included in a message posted by the Romanian Chess Federation on its site.

Kirill Shevchenko is 70th-placed according to the ELO rating system of the world’s best chess players. In the world’s top 100 players, Romania has two other chess players, Richard Rapport, who is 12th-placed, and 39th-placed Bogdan Deac. 2005 was the year when a Romanian last won the European title. Back then Dieter Nisipeanu was the winner of the title, at the edition held in the Polish capital Warsaw. (EN)