The press-officer of the World Cup, the FIDE President Advisor Nikita Kim shared his impressions on his present visit to the capital of Ugra and told us about the 4^th in a row in Khanty-Mansiysk knock-out tournament.

— This is your fourth visit to Khanty-Mansiysk. How does it differ from other tournaments? — Every time when I come to Khanty-Mansiysk I feel amazement and admiration. From a simple provincial town the capital of Ugra has been transformed into a wonderful metropolitan city and thanks to its comfort and beauty it can even be compared to the biggest European cities.

For me, as for the FIDE President Advisor, it is a pleasure to see the tempo of the chess development in this region. Our main program «Chess in Schools» is being fulfilled in a brilliant way here. For the moment about 16 000 children study chess in schools that is a very good figure. There are important competitions held here. If they undertake the organization of tournaments in Khanty-Mansiysk, they do it on a very high level. The best specialized Chess Academy in the world has been constructed here. In the long run, I feel a huge support to our kind of sport from the government of the region. You know, I do not know why, but in the journalists «circuit» it is considered to be impolite to write warm words about the people who actually contribute to the fact that this event is taking place. I would like to deviate from this weird «trend» and to thank everyone who organized this World Cup. I would like to extend my personal gratitude to the Governor Natalia Komarova and to the Mayor of Khanty-Mansiysk, the President of the Chess Federation of Ugra Vassily Filipenko. These people have done a lot to make our favorite game take an appropriate place in the life of this region.

 — Along with the World Chess Cup, there are Biathlon Championships held in Ugra … — Plus the popular cinema festival «The spirit of fire», the festival of Fino-Ugorian peoples, World Championship in Para biathlon and a great number of other huge events.

My comrades from the government explained to me that they are working under the motto: «Ugra is the best place to live, to rest and to work». I think they manage to fulfill this motto. Recently I have read about one special research: it turned out that judging by most of the criteria, Ugra is on the same level and in some issues the region is even superior to some countries of Western Europe. The data on the birthrate in Okrug is better than in Western Europe and the coefficient of death-rate, on the contrary, is very low here. For instance, in comparison with Germany it is lower almost in 65%. It is impressive, isn’t it?

— Tell me about it! What do you think about the organizational level of this World Cup? — There are always some force-majeure situations taking place during competitions. This is exactly what measures the organizational level and professionalism of the team that you are working with. As for this tournament, all the problems are solved in a precise and quick way. It is a pleasure to cooperate with people who speak the same language with you. We should give dues to the head of the company «Ugra Mega Sport» Viacheslav Zhuravlev and the entire personnel.

For me personally, as for the head of the press office, it is extremely important to be in contact with such structures as the Press-Office of the Governor. I must say that all the questions are solved in a prompt and professional way. We are a perfect team! To tell you the truth, before the start of the tournament I was very much worried for online transmissions. Taking into account that this is the first time in the history we have introduced it here and moreover in two languages, it seemed that we would not avoid blunders. However, Sergey Shipov and Valery Ioshan, Anna Sharevich and Konstantin Landa proved themselves to be the commentators of international level, and as far as technical support is concerned, it was almost perfect. There are of course some points that can be improved and we will take this tournament’s experience into consideration when preparing for further events. In general, Khanty-Mansiysk, as always, fulfilled its task to 100 percent. For the moment there are a bit less than one and a half million visitors representing 184 countries of the world registered on the official site of the tournament. It means that people are interested in this event and in our work. This is the main result of our mutual collaboration.

Interviewed by Maria Fominykh