Rafael Pinchas reports that for the first time in its nation’s 62-old history, Team Israel made its debut at the 16th Deaf Chess Olympiadin the coastal city of Estoril, Portugal from June 3 through 13th.
Men’s Team
Seventeen teams competed in the men’s division.
The Israel men’s team won 5 games and lost 4. The six-member Israeli squad was composed of Yehuda Gruenfeld of Mevasseret Zion, Yevgeniy Shevchuk of Haifa, Alexander Margulis of Beer Sheva, Georgiy Malyi of Bat Yam, Genady Krivulin of Rishon le Zion and Alexander Pinhasov of Ramle.
Top ten finishers in the men’s division were:
1. Croatia – 2010 World Champion
2. Poland
3. Ukraine
4. Hungary
5. Russia
6. Israel
7. Italy
8. Germany
9. Serbia
10. Kazakhstan.
Women’s Team
The Israel women’s team consisted of its 3 players – Sholpan Shevchuk of Haifa, Tamara Shebunyev of Rishon le Zion and Nataliya Monastyrskiy of Nazereth-Ilit.
The team played 6 games and recorded 2 ties and 4 losses. Final rankings were as follows:
1. Russia – 2010 World Champion
2. Ukraine
3. Poland
4. Kazakhstan
5. India
6. Israel.
Blitz Chess
The first World Deaf Championship in Blitz Chess took place at Estoril, in which Yehuda Gruenfeld finished a respectable 5th place out of 53 competitors. The blitz title was won by Sergey Salov, a deaf Jewish chess player from Germany. See photo
The International Committee of Silent Chess (ICSC), the worldwide organization responsible for promoting of the game of the chess among the deaf and hard of hearing people, organized its 30th Congress in which delegates from 25 countries took part.
The ICSC Congress, among the other things, held elections for the Executive Board:
Michele Visco of Italy – President
Phillip Gardner of England – Vice President
Rafael Pinchas of Israel – Secretary-General
Michael Freund of England – Treasurer
Kristof Michalczuk of Poland – Board Member
Pavel Parfenov of Russia – Board Member.
ICSC delegates also approved relocation of ICSC headquarters from London, England, to Israel.
