“Being developed in the Okrug, chess help in the Okrug development”, -  said  Alexander Filipenko at the opening ceremony of the World Chess Cup, which started on November 23 in Khanty-Mansiysk.

Governor reminded that the  right for its holding and also the right for holding the World Chess Olympiad in 2010 Ugra won in Turin at the 77-th FIDE Regular Congress. ”Jointly with the FIDE the Organizing Committee of the World Cup tried to create all the conditions for chess-players to have good mood, success, good luck in these competitions … I am pleased that among 128 top chess-players from 47 countries of the world who gathered in Khanty-Mansiysk there are four representatives of Ugra. It is not a debut but further development of the situation. I am confident that chess-players of Ugra will please the world with their achievements in playing chess”, - said Alexander Filipenko.

Welcoming the participants and guests of the competitions the FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov expressed confidence that the II World Cup as the first one will be held in Khanty-Mansiysk on the high organizational level. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov highly assessed the work, done by the Okrug Government for the popularization and development of this kind of sport  in the region. For the first in the world in Khanty-Mansiysk the Internet-center of chess was opened and the new subject – chess – was introduced at schools.

The competitions of the World Cup will be held according to the Olympic system: six rounds by two parties each. In case of the draw, the winner will be determined while the tiebreak. The final seventh round consists of four  games.

Among the participants   23 players represent Russia including Evgeni Alexeev, Nikolai Kabanov, Alexei Pridorozhny (Surgut) and Vladimir Genba (Khanty-Mansiysk). The gross-masters with the highest rating are Vasili Ivanchuk (Ukraine), E. Bakro (France), Alexander Grischuk and Petr Svidler (Russia), Margnus Karlsen (Norway), Teimur Radzhabov (Azerbaijan), Alexei Shirov (Spain), Gata Kamski (USA) and the winner of the First World Chess Cup Levon Aronyan (Armenia).

The competitions of the World Chess Cup will be finalized on December 17 in Khanty-Mansiysk. 

The  games  of the World Chess Cup participants were started with the first symbolic move, made by Governor of Ugra Alexander Filipenko and FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.

The FIDE President highly assessed the level of the preparation of the Ugra capital for the tournament and said that in the Autonomous Okrug much attention was paid to chess: they are included into the school curriculum, the Internet – center was created for the training of young chess-players, therefore it is quite possible that soon the Ugra gross-masters will be among the candidates for the world chess crown. He thanked Alexander Filipenko for the chess sport development and conveyed him the warm regards from the members of the FIDE Presidential Council and participants of the World Chess Congress held recently in Antalia. He expressed confidence that Ugra will be the excellent host of the World Chess Olympiad in 2010.

Governor of the Autonomous Okrug said that the prestigious world tournaments held in the Autonomous Okrug promoted to the great development of the chess sport in the region, forming the wonderful team which is training for the Olympiad. In accordance with the conditions, the host can be represented by two teams – women’s and men’s teams. Ugra is going to use this right. At the present World Cup four representatives of the regional chess school participate and they will become the basis for the formation of the Olympic teams. Alexander Filipenko assured that Ugra would do its best to create good conditions for the Olympiad-2010 participants to play  games.