The European Sambo Championships will take place

The history of chess goes back at least one and a half thousand years. Invented in India in the 5th-6th centuries, chess spread almost throughout the world, becoming an integral part of human culture. There is an ancient legend that attributes the creation of chess to a certain Brahmin. For his invention, he asked the rajah for an insignificant, at first glance, reward: as many wheat grains as would be on the chessboard if one grain was placed on the first square, two grains on the second, four grains on the third, etc. It turned out , that there is no such amount of grain on the entire planet (it is equal to 264 − 1 ≈ 1.845 × 1019 grains, which is enough to fill a storage facility with a volume of 180 km³). It’s hard to say whether it was true or not, but one way or another, India is the birthplace of chess. No later than the beginning of the 6th century, the first known game related to chess, chaturanga, appeared in northwestern India. It already had a completely recognizable “chess” appearance, but it was fundamentally different from modern chess in two features: there were four players, not two (they played pairs against pairs), and moves were made in accordance with the results of throwing dice. Each player had four pieces (chariot (rook), knight, bishop, king) and four pawns. The knight and king moved the same way as in chess, the chariot and bishop were much weaker than the current chess rook and bishop. There was no queen at all. To win the game, it was necessary to destroy the entire enemy army. Turning chess into international view sports Since the 16th century, chess clubs began to appear, where amateurs and semi-professionals gathered, often playing for a monetary stake. Over the next two centuries, the spread of chess led to the emergence of national tournaments in most European countries. Chess publications are published, at first sporadic and irregular, but over time they become increasingly popular. The first chess magazine "Palamed" began to be published in 1836 by the French chess player Louis Charles Labourdonnais. In 1837, a chess magazine appeared in Great Britain, and in 1846 in Germany. In the 19th century, international matches (since 1821) and tournaments (since 1851) began to be held. At the first such tournament, held in London in 1851, Adolf Andersen won. It was he who became the unofficial “chess king,” that is, the one who was considered the strongest chess player in the world. Subsequently, this title was challenged by Paul Morphy (USA), who won the match in 1858 with a score of +7-2=2, but after Morphy left the chess scene in 1859, Andersen again became the first, and only in 1866 Wilhelm Steinitz won the match against Andersen with a score of +8- 6 and became the new “uncrowned king.” The first world chess champion to officially bear this title was the same Wilhelm Steinitz, defeating Johann Zuckertort in the first match in history, in the agreement of which the expression “world championship match” appeared. Thus, a system of title succession was established: the new world champion was the one who won the match against the previous one, while the current champion reserved the right to agree to the match or reject the opponent, and also determined the conditions and location of the match. The only mechanism capable of forcing a champion to play with a challenger was public opinion: if a strong, admittedly strong chess player for a long time could not get the right to a match with the champion, this was seen as a sign of the champion’s cowardice and he, saving face, was forced to accept the challenge. Typically, the match agreement provided for the champion's right to a rematch if he lost; a victory in such a match returned the championship title to the previous owner. In the second half of the 19th century, time control began to be used in chess tournaments. At first, an ordinary hourglass was used for this (the time per move was limited), which was quite inconvenient, but soon the English amateur chess player Thomas Bright Wilson (T.B. Wilson) invented a special chess clock that made it possible to conveniently implement a time limit for the entire game or for a certain number of moves . Time control quickly became part of chess practice and soon began to be used everywhere. By the end of the 19th century, official tournaments and matches without time control were practically no longer held. Simultaneously with the advent of time control, the concept of “time pressure” appeared. Thanks to the introduction of time control, special forms of chess tournaments with a greatly shortened time limit arose: “fast chess” with a limit of about 30 minutes per game for each player and “blitz” - 5-10 minutes. However, widespread they received it much later. Chess in the 20th century At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries, the development of chess in Europe and America was very active, chess organizations became larger, more and more international tournaments. In 1924, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) was created, initially organizing the World Chess Olympiads. Until 1948, the system of succession of the world champion title that had developed in the 19th century was preserved: the challenger challenged the champion to a match, the winner of which became the new champion. Until 1921, the champion remained Emanuel Lasker (the second, after Steinitz, official world champion, who won this title in 1894), from 1921 to 1927 - Jose Raul Capablanca, from 1927 to 1946 - Alexander Alekhine (in 1935 Alekhine lost the world championship match to Max Euwe, but In 1937, in a rematch, he regained the title and held it until his death in 1946). After the death of Alekhine in 1946, who remained undefeated, FIDE took over the organization of the world championship. The first official world chess championship was held in 1948, the winner was the Soviet grandmaster Mikhail Botvinnik. FIDE introduced a system of tournaments to win the champion title: the winners of the qualifying stages advanced to the zonal tournaments, the winners of the zonal competitions advanced to the interzonal tournament, and the winners best results in the latter they took part in a candidate tournament, where a series of knockout games determined the winner, who was to play a match against the reigning champion. The formula for the title match changed several times. Now the winners of zonal tournaments participate in a single tournament with the best (rated) players in the world; the winner becomes world champion. The Soviet chess school played a huge role in the history of chess, especially in the second half of the 20th century. The wide popularity of chess, active, targeted teaching of it and the identification of capable players from childhood (a chess section, a children's chess school was in every city of the USSR, there were chess clubs in educational institutions, enterprises and organizations, tournaments were constantly held, a large amount of specialized literature was published) contributed to the high level of play of Soviet chess players. Attention to chess was shown at the highest level. The result was that from the late 1940s until the collapse of the USSR, Soviet chess players virtually reigned supreme in world chess. Of the 21 chess Olympiads held from 1950 to 1990, the USSR team won 18 and became the winner in another silver medalist, out of 14 chess Olympiads for women during the same period, 11 were won and 2 silver medals were taken. Of the 18 draws for the title of world champion among men over 40 years, only once the winner was not a Soviet chess player (this was the American Robert Fischer), and twice more the contender for the title was not from the USSR (and the contender also represented the Soviet chess school, it was Viktor Korchnoi, fled from the USSR to the West). In 1993, Garry Kasparov, who was the world champion at that time, and Nigel Short, who became the winner of the qualifying round, refused to play another world championship match under the auspices of FIDE, accusing the federation leadership of unprofessionalism and corruption. Kasparov and Short formed a new organization, the PSA, and played the match under its auspices. There was a split in the chess movement. FIDE deprived Kasparov of the title, the title of world champion according to FIDE was played between Anatoly Karpov and Jan Timman, who at that time had the highest chess rating after Kasparov and Short. At the same time, Kasparov continued to consider himself a “real” world champion, since he defended the title in a match with a legitimate contender - Short, and part of the chess community was in solidarity with him. In 1996, the PCA ceased to exist as a result of the loss of a sponsor, after which the PCA champions began to be called “world classical chess champions.” In essence, Kasparov revived the old system of title transfer, when the champion himself accepted the challenge of the challenger and played a match with him. The next “classical” champion was Vladimir Kramnik, who won a match against Kasparov in 2000 and defended the title in a match with Peter Leko in 2004. Until 1998, FIDE continued to play out the champion title in the traditional manner (Anatoly Karpov remained the FIDE champion during this period), but from 1999 to In 2004, the format of the championship changed dramatically: instead of a match between a challenger and a champion, the title began to be played out in a knockout tournament, in which the current champion had to participate on a general basis. As a result, the title constantly changed hands and five champions changed in six years. In general, in the 1990s, FIDE made a number of attempts to make chess competitions more dynamic and interesting, and therefore attractive to potential sponsors. First of all, this was expressed in the transition in a number of competitions from the Swiss or round robin system to the knockout system (in each round there is a match of three knockout games). Since the knockout system requires an unambiguous outcome of the round, additional games of rapid chess and even blitz games have appeared in the tournament regulations: if the main series of games with regular time control ends in a draw, an additional game is played with a shortened time control. Complicated time control schemes began to be used, protecting against severe time pressure, in particular, the “Fischer clock” - time control with addition after each move. The last decade of the 20th century in chess was marked by another important event - computer chess has achieved sufficient high level to beat a human chess player. In 1996, Garry Kasparov lost a game to a computer for the first time, and in 1997, he lost a match to the computer Deep Blue by one point. The avalanche-like growth in computer productivity and memory capacity, combined with improved algorithms, led to the emergence of publicly available programs by the beginning of the 21st century that could play at the grandmaster level in real time. The ability to connect to them a previously accumulated database of debuts and tables of small-figure endings further increases the strength of the machine’s play and completely eliminates the danger of making a mistake in a known position. Now the computer can effectively advise a human chess player even at the highest level of competitions. The consequence of this was changes in the format of high-level competitions: tournaments began to use special measures to protect against computer hints, in addition, the practice of postponing games was completely abandoned. The time allotted to the game was reduced: if in the middle of the 20th century the norm was 2.5 hours for 40 moves, then by the end of the century it decreased to 2 hours (in other cases - even up to 100 minutes) for 40 moves. Current state and prospects After the unification match Kramnik - Topalov in 2006, FIDE's monopoly on holding the world championship and awarding the title of world chess champion was restored. The first “unified” world champion was Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), who won this match. Until 2013, the world champion was Viswanathan Anand, who won the 2007 world championship. In 2008, a rematch took place between Anand and Kramnik, Anand retained his title. In 2010, another match was held, in which Anand and Veselin Topalov took part; Anand again defended the title of champion. In 2012, a match was held in which Anand and Gelfand took part; Anand defended his championship title in a tiebreaker. In 2013, Anand lost the world champion title to Magnus Carlsen, who won the match ahead of schedule with a score of 6½: 3½. The formula for the championship title is being adjusted by FIDE. In the last championship, the title was played in a tournament with the participation of the champion, four winners of the candidate tournament and three personally selected players with the highest rating. However, FIDE has also retained the tradition of holding personal matches between a champion and a challenger: according to existing rules, a grandmaster with a rating of 2700 or higher has the right to challenge the champion to a match (the champion cannot refuse), subject to the provision of funding and compliance with deadlines: the match must be completed no later than six months before the start of the next world championship. The progress of computer chess mentioned above has become one of the reasons for the growing popularity of non-classical chess variants. Since 2000, Fischer chess tournaments have been held, in which the initial arrangement of pieces is chosen randomly before the game from 960 options. In such conditions, the huge array of opening variations accumulated by chess theory becomes useless, which, as many believe, has a positive effect on the creative component of the game, and when playing against a machine, it noticeably limits the advantage of the computer in the opening stage of the game.

58 - Internal news page

Sambo wrestlers from 17 countries won awards at the European Championship, which ended in Minsk. But the Russian team once again won the title of the strongest.

4:41 22.05.2017

Sambo wrestlers from 17 countries won awards at the European Championship, which ended in Minsk. But the title of the strongest was once again won by the Russian team, and with the maximum result of the combat sambo team, which took nine out of nine possible gold medals.

“Sambo wrestlers from 31 countries took part in the European Championship, and the medals were distributed to 17,” noted the President of the All-Russian and European Sambo Federation Sergei Eliseev. “This means that our sport confidently continues to develop, because now half of the participating countries are already winners, and each The medal was won in a serious struggle."

IN sports sambo in men's and combat, the Russians improved their results compared to the previous tournament, which took place in Kazan. The men have five gold, one silver and two bronze medals; the hosts of the tournament, Belarusians, are in second place (2-1-4), and the Georgian team is third (1-2-4). IN combat sambo The Russians became the undisputed leaders (9-0-0), the Ukrainians took second place (0-4-1), and the Belarusians took third (0-2-3).

For women, compared to last year, there was one less gold - four gold, two silver and three bronze medals, the Ukrainians came second (2-2-5), the Belarusians came third (1-2-4).

Girls with character

In the women's competition, the first places were taken ( weight category up to 48 kg), Anastasia Polikarpova (up to 52 kg), (up to 56 kg) and (up to 68 kg), silver for Arina Pchelintseva (up to 60 kg) and Irina Alekseeva (up to 72 kg). The third places were Anna Shcherbakova (up to 64 kg), (up to 80 kg) and Anna Balashova (over 80 kg).

“The girls showed character, they fought to the end, I especially want to praise Bondareva, Valova, debutant Khomyachkova and Polikarpova,” he noted in an interview with TASS head coach Team Yuri Borisochkin. - What I didn’t like was the performance of world champion Balashova - she was not ready, did not show the desired fight and Ambartsumova. Pchelintseva, last year’s European champion, competed well in the first stage, but burned out in the final.”

The specialist noted that the first team of the team has the November World Championships in Sochi ahead. “The participants of the European Championship have done their job, now they have to help prepare the participants of the World Championship in Sochi. By the way, many debutantes are also going there. I think that next year they will be doubly eager to get into the first team,” he is sure.

First with six recruits

In sports sambo for men, the team tested six recruits at once. European champions were (up to 57 kg), (up to 62 kg), Ali Kurzhev (up to 82 kg), (up to 90 kg) and Vyacheslav Mikhailin (up to 100 kg), Aslan Kambiev won silver (over 100 kg), bronze from ( up to 68 kg) and (up to 52 kg).

"European Championship for Russian athletes It’s always more difficult than the World Championships, since the density of strong sambo wrestlers at this tournament is always higher,” noted the team’s head coach Dmitry Troshkin. - And if we take into account that for some time now the calculation of the overall team place has been carried out according to the Olympic system, that is, according to the number of awards, and not the athletes’ points, then the task becomes even more complicated. But I can say that the rotation in our team is going in the right direction, the guys fought well."

At the European Championships in Kazan in 2016, the Russians won four gold medals, two silver and one bronze.

Nine gold schools of combat sambo - blood, sweat and tears

In combat sambo, the Russians showed an exceptional result - nine victories out of nine. Gold was won by (up to 52 kg), (up to 57 kg), (up to 62 kg), (up to 68 kg), (up to 74 kg), (up to 82 kg), (up to 90 kg), (up to 100 kg) and (over 100 kg).

“I still don’t believe that this is so,” the team’s head coach admitted in a conversation with TASS. “I had no doubt that we would win the team competition, but with such a result! I understand that this is not very decent in relation to colleagues workshop, but all this is the blood, sweat and tears of our coaches and their work on selection in the regions."

Following the results of the tournament, the mentor was not able to make a single claim against his wards. “There are no comments to anyone,” Konakov emphasized. “Everyone is great.”