4th FIDE World Chess Championships for People with Disabilities
Runde 7: Way to the finish
- Written by Philipp Roeder, Fotos: Karsten Wieland
Once again the last round was really exciting. IM Andrei Obodchuk (Elo 2414) played against Mohammadreza Ghadimi (Elo 2146) and thus had the easier match compared to the two other leaders competing for first place IM Piotr Dukaczweski (Elo 2280) and FM Stanislav Babarykin (Elo 2319) who played against each other. In the end a draw was sufficient for Babarykin to win the World Cup because Obodchuk could not achieve more than a draw against Ghadimi despite his advantage in the final game having more pawns than his opponent. The world champion is from Russia and also belongs to the IBCA (International Braille Chess Association). He is not only World Chess Champion for Disabled, but at the same time World Chess Champion for Disabled IBCA. Although Babarykin already played against Aleksander Gerasimov (2175) in the 3rd Round, resulting in a draw, he was able to fight his way through several consecutive victories to the top of the table. Vice world champion is Andrei Obodchuk (Russia IPCA), third place goes to Stachańczyk Jacek (Poland IBCA ) .
World Champion of the Blind and Visually Impaired is also Stanislav Babarykin (Russia blind I). Best player of the physically impaired and thus their World Champion is Andrei Obodchuk (Russia IPCA). The best player of the Deaf is Aleksander Gerasimov (Russia Deaf I), and became the World Champion of the Deaf.
Turkeeva Yulia (Russia ICCD II) and Jamal Messala (Morocco IPCA) fought to the bitter end on table 21, gathering many spectators. Both had only a few seconds left on their clocks turning the last match of the final round into a game with time shortage. Despite having more pawns Messala he could not assert himself in the final rook combination, so that the crossed fingers indicated the ending of the last game with a draw.
IIn the last round, there were several pairings with two German players: Marco Sponheim (Germany IPCA) won against Michael Gründer (Germany ICCD). Thomas Rudolf (Germany IPCA) defeated Richard Michalowski (Germany ICCD). Even Wolfgang Krabbe (Germany ICCD) was able to prevail at Table 28 against Holger Mende (Germany ICCD). The youngest participant in the tournament, Raphael Zimmer (Germany IPCA), achieved a draw against Stefan Krause (Germany ICCD). Artur Kevorkov (Germany ICCD) played against David Falkowski (Poland IBCA), Dr. Karl-Heinz Usbeck (Germany ICCD) and Trifanova (Russia ICCD II) also parted with a draw. Andreas Wenzel (Germany IPCA) won against the Indians Snehit Saraf. Unfortunately, the other German participants Katharina Kohnen (Germany IPCA), Falk Zimmermann (Germany IBCA) and Rolf Huss (Germany IPCA) lost their last matches. The best German player is Mohammadreza Ghadimi, who came in 10th place with 5 points. The youngest player in the tournament, the German Raphael Zimmer, reached half of the possible points with 3.5 points and finished his great performance off with the 35th place on the table.
IThe teams of all organizations shared the first three places in the team ranking. Best team and thus bearer of the title "World Chess Team Champion of Disabled" is "Russia blind I". The team members are the incumbent world champion Stanislav Babarykin , Iuri A. Meshkov , Alexey Pakhomov and Sergey Krylov. The second-best team is "Russia IPCA" with the players Andrei Obodchuk , Alexander Balberov , Dmitry and Sergei Scerbin Tsapalin. In third place was the team of "Poland IBCA" with Piotr Dukaczewski , Rafal Gunajew , Mackowiak and Marek Dawid Falkowski. The best German team "Germany Deaf " with the players Mohammadreza Ghadimi , Artur Kevorkov , Olaf Hoyer and Michael Gründer obtained 7th place. The Dresden team "Dresden Deaf" with Stefan Krause, Wolfgang Krabbe, Dr. Karl -Heinz Usbeck and Holger Mende were ranked 12th.
Although not everybody can be a winner, all the players at this World Championship certainly win merely because of their participation. A well-known saying states that being there and participating is everything. And for some it was the greatest thing being able to participate. In the end there was no one with 0 points, even the two players ranked last had at least 0.5 points and did not need to be sad.
A very special thanks from all the players goes to the supporters of the 1st World Chess Championship for people with disabilities, without whom this special event would not have been possible: ZMD AG - Saxon State Ministry of the Interior – The City of Dresden - FIDE - Foundation West - Eastern encounters.
