Alexey Nakonechny defeated 11 opponents in seven games, and ended in a draw in four games. Before the last round there was a race with a participant from Scotland, but here too Alexey won. And after the last round it became clear that he was the winner.
Alexey Nakonechny from Truskavets, Lvov region, emerged victorious at the World Rapid Chess Championship, beating 11 opponents and the “star” of Russia’s chess future, who competed in a neutral status. The champion’s father, Igor Nakonechny, spoke about this on April 30 in an interview with the publication “Ukrainian Truth. Life.”
The young Ukrainian chess player prepared both technically and psychologically for such a triumphant victory at the U10 World Rapid Chess Championship in Albania. And although Alexey and his dad were dissuaded from the championship due to the participation of an athlete from a hostile country, the family team decided to win, and this was, from their point of view, indisputable.
Father Igor Nakonechny recalls how they said: there will be Russians there, a new “star” of Russian chess in this age category, Roman Shogdzhiev from Kalmykia, will compete there under the FIDE flag. They, together with Alexey, decided that let the “neutral” be second, but they would become first.
“In this tournament we had to play with a hostile country, and there lives a guy who is predicted to win the world championship and who is called the greatest talent of our time in young chess. I knew that sooner or later we would meet him,” emphasizes the father of the Ukrainian champion.
Photo: From open sources
Photo: From open sources
Alexey Nakonechny defeated 11 opponents in seven games, and ended in a draw in four games. Before the last round there was a race with a participant from Scotland, but here too Alexey won. And after the last round it became clear that the young chess player from Ukraine was the winner.
“At the World Rapid Championships, Alexey performed excellently. He was 7th in the starting list in the ranking and took 1st place without defeat – that’s cool! The opponents are serious, they have different styles of play. There were champions of their countries,” said the boy’s coach Andrey Zozulyak.
He noted that, of course, the preparation was quite serious: new openings, analysis of the opponents’ play, searching for their weak points. But the result is unconditional. According to the coach, now Alexey will rest a little and then return to tournaments. At the end of May he can play at the championship in Krakow, and at the end of June he will go to the European Team Championship in Greece.
The path to success of Alexey Nakonechny
The boy started playing chess professionally recently – in 2021. His father noticed his talent, although he had nothing to do with chess – he previously worked as a ballet dancer at the Lviv Opera.
“I saw that general group classes are not enough for Alexey. He needs serious training. We started working in 2021 with one coach, reached the second category level. Then we moved to another coach. The main successes have already happened with him – in the past year, Alexey became the champion of Ukraine,” recalls his father.
Photo: From open sources
Andrey Zazulyak, a coach from Kremenchug, began training with Alexey online in September 2022. It is Zazulyak who is involved in the technical part of Alexey’s preparation: he practices midgames, endgames, various techniques with the guy, plays Italian and Spanish games, the Queen’s Gambit, and even added a torre attack. The father is responsible for the psychological preparation of his son.
“Alexey already has almost 2.5 thousand points in online chess. Sometimes he plays chess for 4-5 hours a day, and on “school” days he tries to set aside at least an hour or two to play several games,” says father.
Igor Nakonechny shares his experience that previously chess players themselves determined how successful the game was. Now all this is done by the computer, at the same time it is possible to analyze the game using the gadget and calculate the accuracy of the moves.
The boy’s father emphasizes that chess is a serious and grueling sport. Adult tournaments are competitions with prize pools of hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, recently, children’s tournaments have become extremely difficult – the “ceiling” of abilities has greatly increased.
“If someone thinks that children play weakly, then, believe me, they often play stronger than adults. Children have fresh knowledge and nothing extra in their heads except the game itself. They have a very high level,” says Igor .
And he shares his plans for the boy’s future, but adds that all trips to the championships are at his own expense. The only trip that was paid for by the Lviv Regional Chess Federation, the champion’s father recalls, was to Slovenia. So, according to Igor, the state should still be more interested in its young talents.
“There are no chess tournaments in Truskavets at all. We go to Lviv for open tournaments, where everyone plays. Thanks to the Lviv Chess Academy, which organizes a huge number of tournaments in the city. But when you are a two-time champion of Ukraine and a world champion, you want someone to drew attention to this,” concludes Alexey Nakonechny’s father.
Important
Judoka Bilodid took gold at the European Judo Championships (photo, video)
Let us remind you that Focus wrote that Paris will not welcome athletes from Russia and Belarus at the Olympic Games, which will take place in the French capital this summer. The corresponding statement was made by the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo during her visit to Kyiv.
Besides, Focus reported that French intelligence services are recommending the abolition of the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
