It was a great deal more serious than the previous one. The level of each player could be estimated, and the best players were at the level of the 4th grade in chess. The main prize at the tournament was a chessboard with the autograph of Anatoli Karpov, ex-world champion in chess. The umpire was Mikhail Molchanov, international umpire, President of the Chess Federation of the Eastern Administrative district of Moscow.

It was a round robin tournament: all participant played with each other.

Thus, each of the 12 participants played 11 games.

During the first day, December 12, most children managed to play only half of the planned games. Moreover, some of them finished only three games and lagged behind others, preferring quality to speed. Therefore, the remaining games took place the next day, and the last ones were played a week later, on December 17 and 20.

Since the children spent three hours at the boards during the first day, we were afraid that they could feel tired and exhausted. Won't it be difficult for them to play for two days one after another? But all the children told us that they felt wonderful and ready for fighting. Their mothers confirmed the same. Volodya Aksenov's mom told us that his tests showed good results that day, and the mother of Igor Obolenski said that Igor was awfully afraid to be late and told her to hurry.

A group of leaders formed from the very beginning of the tournament. Generally, the same group remained till the end: Said Islamov, Volodya Aksenov, Beslan Saaev, Borya Kravchenko, and Igor Obolenski.

Lena Stulen was great at draws. Actually, a draw is not too frequently seen when beginners play chess, but Lena played to a draw in four games out of eleven! In the first day, she was winning in a game with Alina Balakina but failed to gain a victory, ending in a stalemate. Then, playing with Beslan Saaev, one of the leaders of the tournament, Lena herself was in a worse position. But it turned out that Beslan cannot correctly checkmate with his king and queen... stalemate again. And afterward, playing with her sister Kristina, Lena fought so ardently that only two kings finally remained on the board! Lena's game with Vitali Moiseev was quite interesting. Vitali was so close to victory: extra queen, black king already cornered... Checkmate in one move? But alas, Vitali did not notice the black bishop, who hid in the distant corner. And now the breathless white queen is lying near the board, whereas two black pawns are racing toward the desired first rank. The white king is rushing across to them, but this cunning Lena decided to sacrifice her battle bishop. The king was enticed by the easy prey (or maybe this was his revenge for the queen?), and lo! the black already have a queen and a rook (maybe Lena just didn't know that a second queen could be taken. Or maybe she was afraid of yet another stalemate). And now the black pieces push the white king to the edge of the board. Lena ended the game without errors and won.

Not long before the tournament, we analyzed one of Karpov's games with the children. It ended the way it often happens with grand masters: "Black resigned." Borya Kravchenko was indignant: "But why did he? I wouldn't resign!" This is what Borya is like. Maybe sometimes he lacks psychological stability, but still he is a real fighter. He always proudly refuses to accept any odds given to him and excitedly struggles to the end. And confirmed this again during this tournament. Vitali Moiseev had great material advantage, while Borya had only a king and two pawns left. But Borya had no thought of resigning! He methodically gave his pawns to Vitali and started to play the "checkmate-me-if-you-can" game. Even in such a dramatic situation, Borya had a plan. And Vitalik had none. The white gave random checks here and there, but the black king smartly eluded checkmate each time. And finally, we heard Borya's happy voice, "Here is stalemate!" This is what our players are like. They never surrender. And they are right.

Alina Balakina was unlucky. She fought bravely in many games but always lost. She had good luck only once, but it was a great luck. The unconquerable Beslan Saaev either relaxed at the sight of a little girl with ponytails or decided to study her beautiful eyes... and received scholar's mate! The players roared with laughter. Beslan's friends couldn't believe that it was his real game in a tournament, not just a trial or joking one.

Volodya Aksenov did not avoid scholar's mate either. He lost two games one after another: to Said Islamov and to Andrei Osipov. We were nervous. Maybe he is tired? Maybe he is exhausted? And the opponents are strong... Now Beslan Saaev is sitting down opposite to Volodya. And in less than ten minutes, we hear, "This game is over." A strange picture was before our eyes. The pieces are as they were in the beginning of the game, almost untouched. Well, actually, some are lacking. But the white king has come to the black king for a visit: standing at the 8th rank, surrounded by enemy pieces. How can one avoid checkmate in this position! To our surprised "But how come that the king was there?" Volodya calmly responded, "I urged him to get there." Can you imagine a grand master doing such things?! Afterwards, Volodya returned to scholar's mate, but now preferred to mate rather than to be mated. The scholar's mate happened to Vitalik Moiseev, for whom it has already become a bad tradition. Although, on the whole, he is a fairly good player. He even won the game with Andrei Osipov. Andrei is a smart player, but sometimes he just exhausts his opponent by thinking too long. Igor Obolenski also likes to think ten moves ahead. When these two great wizards sat down at the board opposite each other, we only sometimes looked at them to see if they were not asleep. The game lasted about an hour and a half. No wonder that a large group of children saying, "Now my only remaining game must be with Andrei" formed by the end of the tournament. But at the same time, Igor at last won back after losing to Volodya Aksenov in the first tournament. And he was very glad. Igor also had a long and intense game with Said Islamov, the leader of the tournament. The fathers, who looked at this game, discussed it with great ardor. Still, Igor lost. But actually, Said was almost unconquerable this time. The only person to overcome him was Borya Kravchenko.

At the end of the tournament, Borya said, "Volodya, Yulia, let's hold tournaments more often. Better without presents, but just more often." Igor Obolenski supported him, saying that a tournament is a wonderful and interesting event, and that this tournament was much better than the previous one. More games, that is, more chances. "Now you see! And you didn't want to participate," his mother Lena bantered. "I was wrong," admitted Igor.

The final fixture list was as follows:

1st place: Said Islamov, 10 points out of 11; takes home the board with Karpov's autograph; 2nd place: Volodya Aksenov, 8 points; 3rd to 5th places: Borya Kravchenko, Igor Obolenski, Beslan Saaev, 7.5 points each; 6th place: Andrei Osipov, 6 points; 7th place: Magomet Agamatov, 5 points; 8th and 9th places: Olesya Sinkevich, Lena Stulen, 4 points each; 10th and 11th places: Kristina Sinkevich, Vitali Moiseev, 2.5 points each; 12th place: Alina Balakina, 1.5 points.

The participants from the 1st to the 5th places, namely, Said Islamov, Volodya Aksenov, Borya Kravchenko, Igor Obolenski, and Beslan Saaev, scored more than 6.5 points, and this is sufficient for the 4th grade in chess. CONGRATULATIONS! Now we must only apply to Moscow Chess Federation and receive the certificates.

On Thursday, December 23, Said Islamov leaves hospital and goes home, to the Chechen village of Samashki. He had already received the chessboard with Karpov's autograph; the certificate will be sent by mail. At parting, we asked Said to continue with chess. Said and Beslan answered, "Well, we had a chess club before the war... And now, well, we just don't know. We got to like chess only here, at hospital. It would be good if we could have books. Then we would continue."

Such was the end of our small chess tournament.

The Donors-for-Kids group