“Žalgiris” winter games medals for chess players – all over Lithuania
Marytė Marcinkevičiūtė
16 teams will test their strength in the chess competition of the Zalgiris Winter Games in Alytus.
There were individual competitions with a team competition. It included the results of the best performing men and one woman.
16 athletes competed in individual women’s competitions. Simona Limontaitė from Telšiast, Margarita Baliunienė from Kaunas and Odeta Petraitienė from Alytis played the best.
In the men’s group among 50 chess players, Vytautas Vaznonis from Kaunas was successful, Henrikas Jadenkus from Ioniš was second, and Rimvydas Šumskis from Marijampoli was third.
The team competition was won by Kaunas (V. Vaznonis, Margarita Baliunienė and Paulius Juknis), and they were awarded gold medals.
The silver medals were won by the team from Telšiai (Rolandas Kinčinas, S. Limontaitė and Tadas Pronckus), and the bronze by the team from Druskininkai (Rytis Šalenga, Ramutė Mardasevičienė and Kęstutis Bingelis).
In comparison with last year’s Winter Games of Žalgiris, the total number of winners rises: then the Vilnius team won, and the team from Marijampolė and Vilkaviškis became the winners.
“Our silver medals are a pleasant surprise for everyone. When the final results were announced, we can believe for a long time” that we are in second place after Kaunas, cheered the leader, S. Limontaitė, who successfully participated in the Lithuanian championships and represented the national team in previous years, and who now plays as an amateur.
It is not easy for Telšiškis to assemble a team: some players have gone to work abroad, so the strongest ones who stay in Telšiai go.
Currently, there are eight stages of rapid chess championships in Telšiai, six of which are qualifying.
The competition is just getting started, three stages have been organized, but the leaders are already clear: the leader is the multiple district champion, tiler Rolandas Kinčinas, who contributed a lot to the good performance of the Žemaitsi people in Alytus, and Tomas Gaurylius, who was the manager of the Telšiškii team playing in the games, is in second place.
“I wouldn’t say that chess is a popular sport in Telšiai, but enthusiasts are welcome. I worked as a trainer for a while, but due to a change in requirements, I was forced to change my profession and now I am a programmer.
Children are taught to play chess by the team leader at the games, Tomas Gaurylius, who is in the sales personal tournament in Alytus.
The last round of the seven individual competitions was very successful for us – all three of us won, we scored 3 points and this determined us the silver medals.
That game checkers system is very interesting, we like it, but so far we haven’t played like that anywhere.
It was always a team against a team,” 35-year-old S. Limontaitė shared her thoughts.
She contributed the most to the surprise of the Telšiai chess players, as she won the women’s tournament.
The athlete admitted that it was not easy to defeat: with Margarita Baliuniene from Kaunas, she scored 6 points out of seven and the title of the winners was determined by the victory in the match between them.
“I have been playing chess since I was five, my father taught me. Recently, I spend every other day at home surfing the Internet and playing games.
Both my children also liked chess: 10-year-old daughter Sofia and 8-year-old son Nikolajs, who already participate in children’s competitions and sometimes practice with me from time to time. The chess player was also the father of the children from Russia, but I am divorced from him.
Everyone thinks that chess is an easy sport, but it requires a lot of patience, concentration and time, often we will sit for several hours”, smiles the strongest chess player of the games from Žemaitija.