Young disabled chess players met the Candidates Tournament grandmasters

Saturday, March 19th, Young disabled chess players visited the Candidates Tournament venue in Moscow's DI Telegraph. This was the part of the charity event «Grandmasters for children».

The event was organized by Candidates Tournament's General Partner – Tashir Group and the charity fund «Country of talents». The Candidates Tournament is organized by World Chess by Agon Limited as the part of FIDE World Chess Championship Cycle.

Children from Moscow chess schools took part in the event. Young chess players visited the game hall, where the players compete; TV studio, where all the official press-conferences for rounds are held, commentators' box and the flash-zone. After that all the guests took part in the simultaneous exhibition, held by international GM, Honoured Coach, Head Coach of Russian Chess Olympic Team Sergei Yanovski.

FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov said: “I want to thank everyone for organizing this meeting. I hope that some of these young chess players, who took part in the simultaneous exhibition today, soon will play in the game hall like this to win the chance to face against the world champion”.

Candidates Tournament participants – Sergei Karjakin, Peter Svidler and Veselin Topalov – also took part in the event. They signed the autographs and took the pictures with the children.

«It is very good and very proper event, demonstrating that chess is the game for everyone. Despite the fact that charity has become an indispensible part of sports and a part of every sportsman’s public program, I suppose that the decision to participate in such event should be taken by heart. It is similar to feelings for chess. If you're fond of chess since the very childhood, this feeling stays with you for the rest of your life. I hope that these children will also keep this love in their hearts forever. Who knows, maybe the next world champion is among them», - said Sergei Karjakin.

«I am confident that not only children will remeber this event. Since its foundation, Tashir Group has devoted significant attention to charitable activities along with its business development. This event shows that nothing can stop someone in achieving their goal. Today, aspiring chess players became the perfect example of this fact. These kids are distinguished by intellectual potential and strong will—with a persistence that helps them fight any obstacle—and this is worth any reward,” – said Zara Agemian, Head of marketing and corporate communications in Tashir Group.

«The main aim of this event is to attract public and media attention to the problem of disabled children's health problems and social adaptation; to show, how important it is to draw attention to these children's intellectual potential, to develop their mental capabilities that will help their recruitment in the future.  We are happy to give these young chess players brilliant opportunity to take part in the major event in the chess world – Candidates Tournament. We suppose that the chances should be equal for everyone. We want to give everyone faith in human, who can do more than he thinks he can” – claimed “Country of talents” charity fund founder Polina Torochkova.