Baltic States – CIS, Competition, EU – Baltic States, Good for Business, Latvia

Photo: sahafederacija.lv

The European Youth Chess Championship took place at the Kipsala exhibition center in Riga. Over 1,000 participants from 47 countries competed in the nine rounds of the tournament. Latvia was represented by 103 young chess players at the tournament.

“In my opinion, the championship was well organized. Surely, there were some small details as the number of participants was very high, around 2,000 people overall. I would like to thank the state and Riga City Council, as well as other sponsors,” said Ozolins.

“I would also like to thank the organizers – the team did a great job under Egils Lavendelis’ leadership. The hall was very good, the championship could be viewed in good-quality video broadcasts. There was an unpleasant incident where one of the participants had to be disqualified, but on the whole, we can be satisfied with this tournament,” the president of the Latvian Chess Federation said.

For the Latvian Chess Federation, hosting the tournament was a significant challenge.

“I think that we organized the tournament excellently. Hosting the chess tournament cost roughly 400,000 euros, but the data have yet to be updated. We had our concerns, of course, but we did it. Sponsors were cooperative as well,” Ozolins said.

Lavendelis, the head of the team that organized the tournament, ironically thanked the youngster “who played with his phone”, saying that he helped draw media attention to the tournament.

Lavendelis agreed that hosting the chess championship was a challenge as booking accommodation for all participants was not an easy task.

The tournament’s chief arbiter Ahot Vardapetian said he enjoyed the tournament in a country and city with good chess traditions and also praised the championship’s high organizational level.