8th World University Chess Championship

Istanbul, Turkey - September 5th to 11th, 2004

Russian Mastery

With 9 Grand Masters, 11 International Masters and 6 FIDE Masters among the male players, as well as 2 Grand Masters, 9 International Masters and 2 FISU Masters among the women, the Istanbul edition of the Chess championship promised to be hotly-disputed.

Chess in Istanbul (TUR)
Even if it is not a sport in the true sense of the word, the game of chess is very highly prized in academic circles and World University Chess Championships have always been successful events. Chess has been on the FISU programme for fourteen years now and affirmed itself at the third edition, held in Sofia in 1994 when the results of the championship were first registered by FIDE (Fédération Internationale d'Echecs – International Chess Federation) allowing the participants to compete for the awarding of international FIDE titles. The level attained by the FISU championship meant that this was an inevitable development.

After Odessa in 1990, Antwerp in 1992, Sofia in 1994, Leon in 1996, Rotterdam in 1998, Varna in 2000 and Ulaanbaatar in 2000, the eighth edition of the World University Chess Championship was held in Istanbul, Turkey.

The largest Turkish city is an old hand at hosting Chess tournaments due to the number of international tournaments regularly held there. In 2003, for example, the Chess Olympiad for youngsters under 16 years old gathered 150 male and female players from 17 countries, while in the same year, the 4th European Championship for men brought together 230 players including 150 Grand Masters! Our players, 43 men and 21 women students from 15 countries, were able to benefit from this tradition.

With 9 Grand Masters, 11 International Masters and 6 FIDE Masters among the men, as well as 2 Grand Masters, 9 International Masters and 2 FISU Masters among the women, the Istanbul edition of the Chess championship promised to be an exciting competition.

Men and women played (separately) a tournament of nine rounds. The classification by team was established by taking the best scores of two men and one woman per country. The championship took place in the prestigious “Feshane Exhibition Center” at the same time as the third International Chess Festival of Istanbul.

Russian domination
The Russians dominated both the men's and the women's tournaments. For the men, Pavel Smirnov took the lead ahead of his compatriot Denis Khismatulin. They both obtained 7 points leading to a tie-break (a rare occurrence in chess), which is why the bronze medal was awarded to both of them.

For the women, Russian Ovod Engenija took first place, with seven points out of nine, ahead of Polish competitor, Jonanna Dworakowska. Tamara Chistiakova, another member of the Russian team classified third.

Unsurprisingly, Russia won the team competition with a total of twenty one points, ahead of Georgia (eighteen points) and Iran (sixteen points). This is becoming a tradition, as these three countries have been on the podium at every championship since the 1998 edition held in Rotterdam.

Organised jointly by the Turkish University Sports Federation and the Turkish Chess Federation, this championship was technically very successful. The only regrettable aspect is that our event was sometimes overshadowed by the larger International Chess Festival, held at the same time.

Organizing Committee

Universite Sporlari Federasyonu

Ulus Ishani A Blok Kat 2, N° 209
06050 Ulus-Ankara - Turkey

phone:(90.312)3105043
fax: (90.312)3101683

Chess 2004 univspor@gsgm.gov.tr

Results