From May 6-15, the 20th World Chess Championship for athletes with hearing impairments was held in the Spanish city of Roquetas de Mar, bringing together participants from 30 countries across five continents.
Three chess players represented the Donetsk region as part of the Ukrainian national team: honored master of sports of Ukraine Tetiana Baklanova from Mariupol, international master of sports of Ukraine Oleksii Filippskykh from Kramatorsk, and international master of sports of Ukraine Vadym Bilyi.
In the team competitions, the Ukrainian men’s team performed best in the blitz event, where they took first place with a score of 12 points. Oleksiy Filippskykh and Vadym Bilyi contributed to the gold medal win, scoring 4.5 and 5.5 points, respectively, over the course of seven rounds.
The Ukrainian team also took fourth place in classical chess, losing to the bronze medalists from Kazakhstan only on tiebreakers after both teams finished with 10 points. In the rapid chess competition, the Ukrainian team finished sixth, scoring 8 points.
Tetiana Baklanova performed successfully in the women’s individual competitions. The chess player won two medals at the World Championship. In blitz, she won “gold,” scoring 7.5 points after nine rounds. A representative from Poland achieved the same result, but the Ukrainian player edged out her rival on tiebreakers. In rapid chess, Tetiana scored 5 points over seven rounds and took the bronze medal.
The athletes were trained by coaches Vadym Bilyi and Hanna Melamed.