Miro brings joy to the City of Joy, Kolkata

by Shahid Ahmed - 07/05/2018

The voice of maximum elite level chess tournaments, Ukrainian GM Evgenij Miroshnichenko visited Kolkata in April to train two of his secret students. On 6th and 7th April, there were open sessions for anyone to attend his workshop and play a simultaneous match. He is not only a commentator but a mentor, trainer and FIDE Instructor too. He has trained Anna Muzychuk. He himself won Ukrainian championship and finished joint first in Mumbai Mayor's Cup in 2009. Mind Game Chess Academy organized a two-day workshop cum simultaneous event in Press Club Kolkata. In this report, you will find a few positions discussed by Miro in the session, simultaneous matches played by him and an interview of him.

Miro shares his voice and enchants the budding players of Kolkata

GM Evgenij Miroshnichenko with all the participants attending the Workshop cum Simultaneous Match in Kolkata

Miro getting felicitated with a memento by Prof. Pema Lama

We are all familiar with GM Evgenij Miroshnichenko doing commentary on almost all elite level chess tournaments. However he is also FIDE Senior Trainer, who has trained former Women's World Rapid and Blitz champion, Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine. 'Miro' as he likes to be called, won Ukrainian championship twice in 2003 and 2008, he won the gold medal in board no. 6 in European Club Cup in 2008 and helped his team Kiev, secure 3rd position. He has also been the joint winner of Mumbai Mayor's Cup in 2009.

Miro celebrates his birthday together with Anna Muzychuk and Anastasiya Karlovich

He starts off the day with a simple endgame pattern comprising of different positions of various difficulty.

Diagram #1: Simple King-Pawn endgame | Black to play

Diagram #2: Same pattern with an addition of Bishop and Knight | White to play

Diagram #3: Can you recognize the pattern with Diagram #1 and #2 ? | White to play

Diagram #4: The pattern is not exactly same as the previous one, but similar idea can be used | White to play

Diagram #5: Another similar pattern position. Can you find out how White can win here? | White to play

Diagram #6: This position is the end of a study. Can White save the game? | White to play

17-year old, IM-norm holder, Srijit Paul is one of the few players who was able to defeat GM Evgenij Miroshnichenko on the second day with white pieces. Let us take a look at the game:

Final moments of Srijit Paul defeating Miro

Srijit lost his first game with black pieces against Miro, he was nevertheless excited to learn from Miro

Ambarish Sharma drew with Miro in English Opening with black pieces

Saptorshi Gupta drew his second game with White pieces against Miro in Alekhine's Defence

Saptorshi Gupta had one of the most interesting endgames (BB vs R) which he was unable to hold

GM Evgenij Miroshnichenko talks about his experience after the completion of his first day of workshop in Kolkata

IM Sayantan Das and GM Diptayan Ghosh discuss a game with GM Evgenij Miroshnichenko

Miro talks about his visit to Kolkata, playing simul and the interest in chess in India

Photo gallery:

The promotional flex displayed outside the venue, Press Club Kolkata

Press Club Kolkata always hosts one event or the other, it never remains empty

Did you know, India's first newspaper was printed from Calcutta?

First Bangla daily newspaper was Sangband Prabhakar. The Editor was Iswarchandra Prabhakar

Commemorative Statue of the pioneer of Bangla script, Mr. Panchanan Karmakar

The event was organized by Mind Game Chess Academy, Sonarpur at Press Club Kolkata on 7th and 8th April 2018.

Solutions:

Diagram #1

Diagram #2

Diagram #3

Diagram #4

Diagram #5

Diagram #6