During the Opening ceremony of the 3rd tournament of the FIDE Gran Prix series FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov granted the FIDE Certificate of the International Grandmaster to the 15-year old Sanan Syugirov. It is a really historic event for the Republic of Kalmykia as well as for Russian chess. Syugirov became the youngest grandmaster in the country at this time. This year he has got the title of Russian Junior Chess Champion. He was World Champion, Europe Champion and Russia Junior Champion for the age categories he competed in .



These days Sanan Syugirov together with the legendary 10th World Championship Boris Spassky is commenting the games of the Grand Prix tournament for the spectators. Together with Sanan from Lipezk, where he is improving his skills, came his permanent trainer GM Andrey Zontakh. During  round 2 they answered our questions. More...

- Sanan, we congratulate you on the GM title award. By all appearances, you will spend plenty of time at home now…

- Yes, after the tournament, where I am working as a commentator, there will be the New Year holidays which I will spend at home with my parents. After that I will come back to Lipezk and will start to prepare for the forthcoming tournaments.

- What tournaments are you planning to take part in?

- At the end of the January there will be Moscow Open. This time I would like to show a better result than before. I got 5 points out of 9 last year. Then I will play at the Aeroflot Open in Moscow. After that I will participate in the European Individual Chess Championship (Swiss system). In April, I will play for the Lipezk team ‘Perspektiva’ on the Russian Chess Club Championship in Dagomys.

- Sanan, what rating do you have at the moment?

- My ELO is 2563. My rating increased in last October at the Chigorin Memorial in Saint Petersburg  where I  placed 4th. Of course, I will try to raise my rating higher in order to play in more stronger tournaments.

- Can you tell us about your last tournaments?

I played for the Russian team at the friendly match against the French team in Moscow. We have won, and I got 5 points out of 8 and my result was +2. I also took part in the Russian Cup (Knockout system). Unfortunately, I was out after the 1st stage (1/16 final), having lost to the GM Dmity Bocharov from Novosibirsk with whom I played for the first time. During the classic time control we played 1:1, but then I lost on tie-break. Bocharov reached the semifinal and then he lost to B. Savchenko. The winner of the Russian Cup was GM Nikita Vityugov who played in the Russian Championship super final.

I participated also at the qualifying tournament for the traditional festival in Wijk-aan-Zee through the Internet. It was a Knockout system tournament, but the feeling was different. I could not manage to get through the first stage. I lost to an American chess player who played from across the ocean. We played 5 games in an hour and a half: 2 rapid games (25 minutes to each player), 2 blitz games and final game of the ‘unexpected death’. As you can see, the battle was very tough and at the final game where the draw was excluded. I played Black and had 5 minute  left and the opponent – 6 minute. Besides, the draw was ok for me, but the American player wanted only to win. So, he succeeded in it.
 
- Among the participants of the Elista Grand Prix tournament there are several grandmasters. Have you ever played with some of them or talk closely with any of them? As far as I remember, the exception was Ernesto Inarkiev. You have played in a simultaneous with him and have won. Since that time you became older and could offer a battle to him…

- I am keeping in touch with Ernesto in these days. As for the other participants I played only with Evgeny Alexeev, Russian Champion 2006. We met at the traditional tournament ‘Young stars of the world’ in Kirish. At that time I was 12 and Evgeny was 20 years old.



- Have you met with Boris Spassky only now? How do you like your work with him as a commentator?

- Yes, I got acquainted with Boris Spassky for the first time, although he comes to Elista very often recently. It is very interesting to talk to him and to comment the playing games. I think the spectators enjoy our live commentaries.

(The interview with Sanan Syugirov’s trainer will be published  in the next press bulletin)