About of club

The A.V.Momot Chess Club was established on Oct. 29, 1999, in Kramatorsk, a city in Donetsk region, Ukraine.

As a result of selection work, talented chess players from all over Ukraine are attracted to Kramatorsk: Ruslan Ponomariov, Natalia Zdebskaja from Gorlovka, Kateryna Lagno from Lvov, Sergey Karjakin from Simferopol, Zahar Efimenko from Uzhgorod, Alexander Areshchenko from Lugansk, and Anton Korobov and Anna Ushenina from Kharkov.

A very strong coaching staff was formed, including top-notch experts from Ukraine and the colleagues from various post-Soviet republics: "Merited Coaches of Ukraine" Sergey Kovaliov and Alexander Alexikov, Gennadi Kuzmin, Merited Coach of the USSR and Georgia; international grand masters Aleksander Shneider, Andrei Zontakh, Michail Brodsky, Vladislav Borovikov, Yuri Kruppa, Vladimir Savon, to mention a few.

Chess Club Kudos:

• January 2002: 18-year-old Ruslan Ponomariov becomes world champion.
• Sergey Karjakin and Kateryna Lagno, aged 12, are proclaimed grand masters in the world adult league. Both are listed in the Guinness Book of Records and their achievements remain unmatched.
• Kateryna Lagno is a six-time Ukrainian chess champion among girls aged 10-12 years.
• Yuriy Kuzubov and Sergey Karjakin won three youth chess championships in the 10, 12. and 14 age divisions.
• Alexander Areshchenko became champion of Ukraine before she was 14 years old.
• Natalia Zdebskaja was named champion of Ukraine before she was 16 years old.
• Anton Korobov became champion of Ukraine in the male division and Soviet champion before his 20th birthday.
• Anna Zatonskih became champion of Ukraine in the female division.
• In 2002, the Momot Chess Club first won a male chess championship in the team standing and repeated this victory in 2003.
• In 2002, the Momot Club was named the best sports club of Donetsk oblast (and was awarded the Golden Scythian Prize). и In 2004, Yuriy Kuzubov was named Ukraine's youngest grandmaster.
• At age 14 Yuriy Kuzubov won the round tournament in the 10th FIDE category in Groningen (Netherlands).
• In 2005, two club members, Alexander Areshchenko and Zahar Efimenko, were named among the world's 100 best chess players.
• Alexander Areshchenko wins tournaments in Coventry (UK) and Orchus (Denmark). Zahar Efimenko does the same in Gibraltar.
• Alexander Areshchenko becomes Ukrainian champion in 2005 and Zahar Efimenko is named vice champion of Ukraine that same year.
• Natalia Zdebskaja becomes Ukrainian champion in the female division before she is 20 years old, and vice champion of Ukraine in 2005.
• Alexander Areshchenko wins tournaments "15th Monarch Assurance Isle of Man International", 2006.
• Graduates of club Ruslan Ponomariov and Sergey Karjakin become Olympic champions among men's teams (2004), and Kateryna Lagno and Anna Ushenina win Olympic gold among female national teams of the world (2006).
• The graduate of club Kateryna Lagno unique among women to become the double champion of Europe (2005, 2008).

  In total during 1999-2009 it has been prepared eight international grand masters, eleven champions of Europe and the world among young men. 125 medals, from them 63 gold, 40 серебреных and 22 bronze have been won.

  Day today's:

  Today the club represents the generated structure equipped with modern technics and completed with qualified trainers which have taken place special selection. The accurate system of selection of children is fulfilled, and work with more than 150 young sportsmen is conducted in two directions - the higher achievements and mass detsko-youthful chess sports. Relations are established and the permanent job with the most authoritative chess organizers of the world, prestigious publishing houses of the chess periodical press is conducted. For the most perspective young talents individual schedules of employment at school are issued. In club they are engaged under the special program allowing in the shortest terms to reach of considerable results.

  Sportsmen of club - constant participants of the most prestigious chess tournaments, with honour represent our power on international scene.

  Bringing almost ten years' history of activity of Club, with confidence it is possible to tell that in Kramatorsk it is created and effectively the tremendous infrastructure which is the sample of education of young chess stars of world level functions.

A.V. Momot Chess Club Graduates. International grand masters:

• Ruslan Ponomariov
• Sergey Karjakin
• Kateryna Lagno
• Zahar Efimenko
• Alexander Areshchenko
• Yuriy Kuzubov
• Tatiana Kononenko
• Natalia Zdebskaja
• Anton Korobov
• Anna Zatonskih
• Anna Ushenina
• Kirill Shevchenko

Official site: www.chess.krm.dn.ua

e-mail: martynkov@ukr.net

 

The director of club - Oleksandr Martynkov