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MOSCOW, March 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Arkady Dvorkovich, President of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), presented Andrey Guryev, Vice-President of the Russian Chess Federation, with a gold medal for the significant contribution he has made to the development of the chess movement in Russia and abroad. The award marked the Russian National Team's victory in FIDE's first ever online chess olympiad.

The FIDE Online Olympiad held last summer was the largest tournament consisting of national teams ever held in a pandemic. It was a truly global competition, with 163 teams and over 1,500 chess players taking part.

Presenting the medal, FIDE President and Chairman of the Skolkovo Foundation Arkady Dvorkovich, said that PhosAgro's support as a permanent general partner of the Chess Federation of Russia helped the Russian national team to put on an excellent game and secure a well-deserved victory.

"The Russian national team demonstrated maximum dedication and an unwavering desire to win in each game. Yet what is more important to us still is seeing the great and constantly growing interest in chess in Russia and around the world. We take great pride, therefore, in sharing this latest medal with those who have played a part in developing domestic chess and contributing to Russia's success.

"The greater than ten-year partnership between the Russian Chess Federation and PhosAgro has been as an excellent example of the Federation's strong working relationship with its business partners. The Federation's approach to developing chess needs to be as comprehensive as possible in order to popularise chess not only in Russia but also abroad and PhosAgro has helped with this effort by opening chess classes in company-sponsored schools and kindergartens, creating the necessary infrastructure to conduct chess classes in Russia's regions and supporting leading Russian grandmasters. PhosAgro has also supported a number of major international tournaments through sponsorship, including the World Chess Championship matches in Sochi, New York and London," said Arkady Dvorkovich.

Andrey Guryev, Vice-President of the Chess Federation of Russia and CEO of PhosAgro, thanked Arkady Dvorkovich for his continued trust and noted how highly professional the FIDE team's work has been in organising international tournaments and promoting chess around the world.

"Another golden page in the history of Russian chess has just been written. For the first time, the Russian national team has held the winning spot in the World Championship, the European Championship, and the Olympic Games simultaneously. This is a fantastic result!

"I would like to take this opportunity to note the great coordination between the Chess Federation of Russia and FIDE. The COVID-19 pandemic has prevented the normal functioning of many areas in society, but the world of chess has not stopped for a second. The industry has found new formats and been able to significantly expand the audience of the most intelligent sport on the planet. I would like to wish the Russian chess industry continued success in 2021. On our side, we will do everything we can to help our grandmasters bring the world chess crown home," declared Andrey Guryev.

PhosAgro seeks to promote sport among young people and professionals, develop sport culturally, and promote the importance of building a healthy and active lifestyle among its workforce as well as in the cities where it works. In addition to chess, PhosAgro is a long-standing partner of the Russian Olympians Support Fund, the Russian Federation of Rhythmic Gymnastics, the Moscow Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation, the Russian Swimming Federation, the Russian Ski Racing Federation, the Regional Judo Federation of St Petersburg, and is a sponsor of the Severyanka volleyball club (in the Vologda region), the Avtodor basketball club, as well as the Balakovo Turbina speedway team. Through supporting initiatives like these, PhosAgro has helped contribute to the development and international success of Russian sports.

About Phosagro

PhosAgro (www.phosagro.ru) is one of the world's leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers in terms of production volumes of phosphate-based fertilizers and high-grade phosphate rock with aP2O5 contentof 39% and higher. PhosAgro's environmentally friendly fertilizers stand out for their high efficiency, and they do not lead to the contamination of soils with heavy metals.

The Company is the largest phosphate-based fertilizer producer in Europe (by total combined capacity for DAP/MAP/NP/NPK/NPS), the largest producer of high-grade phosphate rock with a P2O5 content of 39%, a top-three producer of MAP/DAP globally, one of the leading producers of feed phosphates (MCP) in Europe, and the only producer in Russia, and Russia's only producer of nepheline concentrate (according to the RAFP).

PhosAgro's main products include phosphate rock, more than 50 grades of fertilizers, feed phosphates, ammonia, and sodium tripolyphosphate, which are used by customers in over 100 countries spanning all of the world's inhabited continents. The Company's priority markets outside of Russia and the CIS are Latin America, Europe and Asia.

PhosAgro's shares are traded on the Moscow Exchange, and global depositary receipts (GDRs) for shares trade on the London Stock Exchange (under the ticker PHOR). Since 1 June 2016, the Company's GDRs have been included in the MSCI Russia and MSCI Emerging Markets indexes.

More information about PhosAgro can be found on the website: http://www.phosagro.ru

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FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich presented Andrey Guryev, Vice-President of the Russian Chess Federation and CEO of PhosAgro, with a gold medal for...

To the question of why Wayne Rooney eschewed an easy retirement away from footballs sharp end for the spotlight of management at Derby, Sven-Gran Eriksson has a simple answer.

The Swede, who gave Rooney his England debut in 2003 as a 17-year-old prodigy, says: He could play golf, but that would be boring. So Im not surprised. Im surprised every time a big player decides to not go to management. Like [David] Beckham, I thought he might do but he has a lot of other things to do.

A man like Wayne Rooney, he should go to management. Its great to be a player, but its even better and more interesting sometimes to be a manager.

In January, Rooney called time on a career as his generations finest English footballer. His CV shows him as Manchester Uniteds and Englands record goalscorer with a clean sweep of domestic and continental club honours whose outstanding displays at Euro 2004 came at only 18 and who was the PFA and FWA player of the year for 2009-10.

These are highlights in a vault of memories that can warm Rooney into his dotage. Now he hopes to add more from the dugout. So far, the move is a success and suggests he may possess the managerial X factor.

He became permanent Derby manager on 15 January, having been appointed as one of a four-strong interim coaching staff in November before taking sole charge on a temporary basis after the 1-0 defeat against Bristol City a week later.

Before that defeat the Rams were bottom of the Championship with six points from 12 games, six from safety with a goal difference of -12. Rooneys record is nine wins and five draws from 22 league matches. Derby stand 19th, three places and six points above the drop zone but have lost their past two games and face high-flying Barnsley on Wednesday.

If there is surprise at his opting for managements relentless churn and a question remains regarding whether his genius football brain can adapt long term to coaching and motivating players, this was no snap decision according to Ben Olsen, Rooneys DC United coach from 2018-20.

For the last few years he really started to change his focus and think about being a manager, how hes going to formulate his own team, says Olsen. What I would say about Wayne is hes football mad. Hes authentic. He was a great leader in the locker room and from my dealings with him he loves the chess aspect of the game.

Those principles made him so successful throughout his career and give him a very good foundation. I look fondly on the time we had at DC United. In some ways, he pushed me as a manager challenging me. He had a nice balance of asking questions and being inquisitive about the way I go about things or the league as a whole.

He seemed to absolutely love the game thats a good place to start. He was always evaluating: This is maybe what I would be doing in this scenario. He probably disagreed with a lot of what we did, but he always came in and trained at a very high level.

Rooney arrived in Washington after a second spell at Everton, which was a single season back at his boyhood team. Nick Chadwick, who is three years older, witnessed Rooney coming through the ranks as a junior at the club and says he had a vision that marked him out and can aid his new career.

Its going to be really interesting because the better footballers make the better decisions, says Chadwick, AFC Fyldes assistant coach. Even at a young age he made good decisions on the pitch, which was why he was a sensational player.

Coaching and management is about being able to transfer ideas to a group. Theres some extremely talented footballers who didnt do this and that can lead to a sense of frustration. With Wayne and the people hes got round him, certainly at Derby, his success will depend on how he implements and gets across the undoubted football brain hes got. If he can translate this into the team hes leading, Im sure hell be a success.

Rooney left Everton for United in August 2004. He was 18 and already Englands most valuable player, his storming of the summers European Championship in Portugal one of the stories of the tournament.

Eriksson stated he was the best teenage talent since Pel. When Rooney injured a metatarsal against the hosts in the quarter-finals Englands tournament was in effect over, going on to lose on penalties.

His United debut came on a memorable September evening at Old Trafford against Fenerbahe: Rooney scored a hat-trick and 13 success-laden years at the club began.

Chris Eagles was at United when Rooney arrived and agrees with Chadwicks point that great footballers are not always suited for management but he gives his former teammate every chance.

Wayne understood the game, Eagles says. If you watched him when he was at United, he was learning different positions. People will listen, respect him and [remember] how and where he played: centre-forward, No 10, midfield. He just knows what is happening. Waynes done everything in the game.

Eagles identifies another prerequisite for any manager to succeed: Rooneys ease with differing personalities, in the dressing room and elsewhere. He was very good at organising, things like that. You could always see it in him to become a manager because hes good with people. A lot of management is about managing the players and Waynes definitely got that in him.

Eriksson, who has managed 16 clubs or national teams, including Benfica, Lazio and Ivory Coast, concurs. He was very mature and understood football well when just 17 years old, the 73-year-old says. When he came for his England debut and we spoke tactics positions, defending, things like that he understood everything. You didnt need to put him in any football school at all.

I had a similar situation in Italy at Fiorentina when we bought Roberto Baggio. He was maybe 18, 19 and very clever. They were both mature, had intelligent football brains at a very early stage.

Eriksson, who won league and cup doubles in Sweden, Portugal and Italy, says: Wayne has a lot to be a big manager. First of all, he understands football he did when 17 and Im quite sure his understanding is even better today. He has huge experience on a great level.

Then, he has learned how to treat people, players, how to be a leader. Hes been a captain for many years in different situations. He has everything to become a big manager, absolutely. You say Rooney and that means respect. Hes a big gun.

Every manager has their own way to do things. Ferguson is one thing, Arsne Wenger another, Guardiola and Mourinho today. Wayne Rooney: Im sure he will have his own way to be a manager.

He is making a promising start.

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He loves the chess aspect: is Rooney made to measure as a manager? - The Guardian

ANKARA

Womens participation in all areas of society and in sports administration is critical for the future, according to the head of the Turkish Chess Federation.

"I am proud to be a role model for young girls," Gulkiz Tulay told Anadolu Agency on Monday, in an interview marking March 8, International Women's Day.

She said she has tried to set a good example for girls by making all-out efforts to ensure that women are present at every step of life.

"When I was appointed the new head of the Chess Federation in 2012, there were 45,000 female athletes, 681 female referees, and 12,000 female trainers," Tulay said.

Since then, she said, they have seen a jump in the number of female referees and trainers, adding that the federation has four female members in the ranks of its administration.

"Since 2012 the number of certified female athletes rose from 45,000 to 342,000," she added.

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Turkish chess group head works to inspire young girls - Anadolu Agency

The queen may be the strongest piece in chess, but it sometimes feels like few women besides the fictional Beth Harmon seem to play the game. In the United States, for example, only about one-seventh of the members of the national chess federation are female. As of February 2021, there are only 37 active female players that have achieved the highest title in chess, that of grandmaster, out of the over 1700 active players who have earned the title.

That said, the very best female players have always been of unambiguously high caliber. Below are the top five in history. All of them played in open events consisting of men and/or women, and some decided at one point to only play in open events. When they did play in women's events, they often lapped the field. All of them have won international tournaments in open fields or defeated a world champion, and in most cases both. Their accomplishments make them legendary icons of the game.

Vera Menchik, the first womens world champion, proved nearly 100 years ago that chess was not just a mans game. In possibly her best tournament, playing on a team with Jose Capablanca among others at Ramsgate in 1929, Menchik went undefeated in seven games. She won her matchups against George Alan Thomas, Reginald Pryce Michell, and Hubert Ernest Price and drew the rest. Those three wins without a loss matched the performance of all-time great GM Akiba Rubinstein in the same tournament, and was a half-point ahead of her former teacher GM Geza Maroczy.

Menchik had an even lifetime score against world champion GM Max Euwe in five games (+2 =1 -2) and U.S. champion GM Samuel Reshevsky in two bouts (+1 -1), but it was Austrias Albert Becker who reportedly created the Vera Menchik Club by losing to her at the 1929 Carlsbad tournament after mocking her participation in the tournament.

In womens events, Menchik was both an unstoppable force and immovable object. She played in seven womens world championship tournaments and won an unbelievable 78 games out of 83, against just a single loss and four draws, for a 98.8% winning percentage. She also won two championship matches against the German (later American) Sonia Graf. In part because of her dominance, Menchik is honored every two years at the Womens Olympiad, where the winning nation is awarded the Vera Menchik Cup.

Menchiks tragic death in a 1944 German rocket strike, six years before the GM title was created, denied her the chance at obtaining it. (FIDE did not award her the title posthumously.) The next player on our list, however, did have that opportunity, and she took it.

GM Nona Gaprindashvili became the first female grandmaster in 1978not to be confused with the Woman Grandmaster (WGM) titleafter a resounding success at the 1977 tournament in Lone Pine, California. There, with a 6.5 score out of nine possible, she tied for first place with grandmasters Yuri Balashov, Dragutin Sahovic, and Oscar Panno.

Gaprindashvilis legacy was already cemented even without her GM title. She was womens world champion for 16 years, taking that title from IM Elisaveta Bykova in 1962, and defending it four times. Gaprindashvili had twice won the Soviet Women's Championship and would win it three more times as a GM. She dominated the women's Olympiad, playing in 12 of them and scoring +94 =26 -8 while winning team gold 11 times and individual gold eight times.

Gaprindashvili has continued to play serious chess well into her 70s, crafting a career spanning more than half a century, nearly six decades. In 1995, she became the women's senior world champion after having been world champion. Twenty-four years later, in 2019 at age 78, Gaprindashvili was the women's 65+ world senior champion for the fifth time.

Few can compete with Gaprindashvili's combination of strength and longevity. Among those who can is one of her fellow countrywomen.

GM Maia Chiburdanidze defeated fellow Georgian Gaprindashvili for the womens world championship in 1978. She was 17 years old at the time, the youngest ever, and went on to hold the title for 13 years, winning four further matches in defense. In the meantime, Chiburdanidze would earn the GM title herself in 1984, at the age of 23. From there, she becamethe first woman to crack the top 50 in rating since FIDE began tracking an official list in July 1971. In January 1988, with a 2560 rating, Chiburdanidze reached #48 in the world. Only one other female player has done so since (as of February 2021).

Chiburdanidze matched up particularly well against GM Nigel Short, going undefeated in her two career games against the Englishman in 1983 and '85. The latter came at Banja Luka, a tournament Chiburdanidze won with a score of four wins and six draws. Less than a decade later, Short would be playing for the world championship.

Chiburdanidze played in 15 Olympiads from 1978-2008, seven for the USSR and then eight for Georgia. She was on the first board all 15 times, even with Gaprindashvili competing for position until 1994. In her last Olympiad, at the age of 47 in 2008, Chiburdanidze led Georgia to victory with a gold-winning +6 =3 in her individual games, including a win over the then-reigning women's world champion, Kosteniuk.

Building off the success of Chiburdanidze and Gaprindashvili, women's chess in Georgia is quite strong. Five female GMs hail from there and despite a current population of about four million. Georgia has over 30 women rated above 2000 by FIDE. That's only four fewer than the nearly 100-times-larger United States, and more than half as many as the 250-times larger China, neither of which are weak chess countries! China has, in fact, one of the two players ranked ahead of Chiburdanidze on this list, with...

As the strongest woman (since our #1 retired) during one of the strongest periods of chess in history, GM Hou Yifan is near the top of this list. In 2010 Hou, 16, broke Chiburdanidzes record for youngest womens world champion. Two years before that, she had surpassed even Judit Polgar by becoming a GM at 14 years old, making her the youngest female GM ever (a record she still holds as of February 2021). Hou would win the championship twice more, in 2013 and 2016, before shifting her focus to open events.

It was a reasonable course of action, as Hou soon achieved great success at Biel in 2017. She won outright with 6.5 out of 9 with a performance rating of 2810. It was a field that included a FIDE world champion (GM Ruslan Ponomariov), a classical world championship finalist (GM Peter Leko), and four other super GMs (players whose rating peaked above 2700). That same year at the GRENKE Chess Classic she defeated GM Fabiano Caruana, who would be playing for the world championship a year later.

At various points in Hou's career, she has taken a break from professional chess to focus on her education and career outside of chess. She was a Rhodes Scholar in 2018 and in July 2020 she became a full-time professor at Shenzhen University at the age of 26. Hou has not entirely left chess, playing two international team competitions in 2020 including the Chess.com Online Nations Cup, and the game of chess plays a key role in her professorship at Shenzhen University.

Hou peaked at 55th in the world on the May 2015 FIDE rating list, just shy of Chiburdanidze's top ranking, but Hou has faced somewhat stronger competition; Chiburdanidze rarely if ever played in fields quite as strong as Biel or GRENKE 2017. Still, the #2 spot on our list was perhaps the toughest call to make. Who to have #1, meanwhile, was the easiest.

GM Judit Polgar is the only player on this list who never became womens world champion, but with good reason: she never tried to obtain that title. She was simply too strong of a player and was better-suited in open events. She has won games against GMs Garry Kasparov andMagnus Carlsen, both while they were #1 in the world. Polgar has even toppled GM Bobby Fischer: When Polgar earned the grandmaster title in 1991, she was the youngest ever, beating Fischers record. (Fischer would stay at the Polgar household for a time in 1993.)

By the time Polgar was 21 years old, New York Times chess columnist GM Robert Byrne declared, there is no argument about the greatest female player ever." Her position was certainly inarguable by the objective rating: in January 1989, when Polgar was 12, she already ranked 55th in the world at 2555, just shy of Chiburdanidze's peak. By July 1993, Polgar reached a 2635 rating and joined the world top 20, easily surpassing Chiburdanidzes top marks. On FIDEs January 1996 rating list, Polgar ranked 10th, a previously unimaginable accomplishment.

Byrne wrote his profile of Polgar in 1997, and she only added to her resume after that. In January 2003, she joined the 2700 rating club, still the only woman to have done so. The following January, Polgar reached eighth on the FIDE rating list, and she stayed in the top ten until 2006. In 2005, Polgar came the closest a woman ever has to becoming world chess champion, playing in an eight-player field for the FIDE crown (won by GM Veselin Topalov).

When Polgar retired in 2014, she was still the top-rated woman in chess at 2675. Hou would pass her the next year when she reached 2686. By that point, Polgar had been the top-rated female player for a quarter of a century, 26 years running all the way back to 1989. Given all of her accomplishments, it is nearly impossible to argue that anyone but Judit Polgar is the greatest female chess player of all time.

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The Top 5 Best Female Chess Players of All Time - Chess.com

The pandemic put sports on hold for students across the state.

As things start to get back on track, one team is celebrating a big win and something no one has been able to do since March 2020.

The Whitney Young Magnet High School Chess Team was awarded a state championship on Feb. 13. It's the first state title since March 7, 2020, when Fremd High School won the Class 4A girls basketball championship over Lincoln-Way West.

"Theres no other feeling like it," said Daniel Zhang, junior at Whitney Young.

The win over Barrington marks the school's sixth championship in 11 years, making Whitney Young the most successful chess program in Illinois High School Association history.

"Im just extremely proud of the team," said chess team coach Daniel Hart. "Its not easy to win a state championship. Its not easy to win one under these incredibly different circumstances."

The team would typically practice and play tournaments throughout the school year in person. Because of the pandemic, this year, all matches were played virtually, including the state title tournament.

"We were just in the computer lab at our school. Normally wed be in a huge ballroom with 1,000 some people," said Alexander Ursu, senior at Whitney Young.

To limit online cheating, the students were required to login at their school with a coach present.

The win came down to the final round between Aria Hoesley, a junior, and another female student, each with seconds left on their game clocks. Games are limited to 45 minutes.

"Her board is worth 12 points. Everyone, including her, knew she had to win," said chess team coach Paul Kash. "When Aria was playing her last game, both players were under a minute, like 10 seconds, on their clocks."

Although undefeated throughout the season, Whitney Young was playing as the underdogs in the state championship, since a teammate was disqualified for technical difficulties.

"I played it as best I could, confidently and aggressively. When I was able to pull it out, it was probably one of the most amazing feelings ever," Hoesley said.

Hoesley has been playing chess for 10 years. She said her dad taught her the game. Hoesley said she's optimistic about the future of chess for girls following the release of the Netflix show "Queen's Gambit."

"Weve never seen so many girls interested in chess," Hoesley said. "Having that show, where it was centered around a female, its awesome. Theres not a lot of girls that play chess, and theres not a lot of girls that stick with chess."

The school's principal is planning a virtual pep rally to celebrate the team's win. Nationals, which are typically held in the spring, have already been canceled due to the pandemic.

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Whitney Young Chess Team Claims First State Title of Pandemic - NBC Chicago