FMJD and Europe

Mori (Italian: Mori) is a municipality in Italy, located in the Province of Trento, in the autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige. It has a population of 9,456 (2011) and a population density of 267 people per square kilometer. It covers an area of 34 km². The patron saint of the municipality is Saint Stephen the Protomartyr, whose feast day is celebrated on December 26.

This town is hosting the annual tournament featuring legendary players for the 51st time. Alexander Shvartsman was invited again this year.

So today we’re publishing the final part of our analysis of the results of the European Youth Draughts Championship in Tallinn. We’re wrapping up this series of posts with an article on the prospects and level of development of the draughts movement, using Latvian clubs as an example. And contrary to the unsubstantiated and overly optimistic claims, we’ll take a look at the reality of the situation.

We completely forgot to remind our readers about the anniversary men’s chess championship in Poland. We’re correcting this small oversight and providing a link to the results table, where you can view the tournament games. The prize fund is slightly smaller than the women’s, but it’s still generous and includes a prize for every player.

Official announcement: We have an anniversary coming up, which the organizers have decided to celebrate in grand style—both from a sporting perspective and in terms of the overall organization of the event. This year, the championship will be held using the Swiss system over 7 rounds. Natalya Sadovska (WKS “Admiral PC Best” Szczecin), who won the gold medal a year ago, will defend her title as Polish champion.

Today we will analyze the performance of the national teams in the Baltic region. We will identify the causes and consequences of their poor performances and assess their prospects for the near future. At the root of all these failures lies the near-total elimination of coaching talent. Using Latvian clubs as an example, we’ll show what a foolish, radical “closed curtain” policy leads to.

The U.S. International Draughts Championship is taking place these days. And we wouldn’t have paid any attention to it were it not for a recent scandal on the North American continent—or, more precisely, on a once-popular online draughts portal. But after he left his homeland and signed a letter against his former fellow athletes, not only our attitude toward him, but also that of many well-known figures in the world of checkers, has become—to put it mildly—questionable and not always flattering…. However…

Magical Prague once again welcomes visitors to its traditional checkers tournament. In Prague, many tour guides share numerous historical facts and legends about the city. Here’s an example of one such legend.

Daliborka Tower
Many tourists, rushing from one “checkmark” on the map to the next, won’t stop near the gloomy Daliborka Tower at the top of Prague Castle—accessible via a staircase at the end of Golden Lane—or even realize that there used to be a prison here.

The French writer Stendhal called Rouen “the Athens of the Gothic style.” Although Rouen’s various civic and religious buildings suffered significant damage during the bombings and fires of World War II, fortunately, most of the city’s most iconic historical monuments have been restored or rebuilt, making Rouen one of the top six French cities in terms of the number of classified historical monuments and one of the top five in terms of the antiquity of its historical heritage.

The Polish Blitz and Rapid Draughts Championships are being held in the small Polish village of Rychlik. The competitions include both individual and team events. And very soon, the national women’s championship will also get underway. An interesting linguistic observation: the name of the Polish village Rychlik translates from Czech as “high-speed train.” A mysterious coincidence.

The traditional annual tournament is taking place in Hogeven. Once again, we witnessed a small miracle on the board, right in the first round. Alexander Shvartsman, in his own unique style, sacrificed a checker and continued playing without it, applying a bit of pressure on his opponent. We’ll post a link to the live stream of this tournament below.

The Xintai Open is an annual international draughts tournament held in Xintai, China. It has been held since 2019 as a single tournament featuring Open, Women’s, Boys’ Under-14, and Girls’ Under-14 divisions. It was not held in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. It is considered a tournament with a large prize fund.

Starting in 2024, results from the “Xintai Open” will count toward the World Cup. The top draughts player in Asia, based on results from the “Xintai Open” and Xingqiu Cup stages in 2026, will be awarded an additional spot at the 2027 World Championship in Wageningen.

The 9-day European Youth Draughts Championship will come to a lively, powerful, unstoppable, and fast-paced conclusion today. Today’s events will feature the Blitz program. Continuing the topic raised in our previous article, we’ll start by posing a couple more questions to the organizers of such championships.