Tournament in Lithuania, October 5 - October 6, 2024

A few words about how Michal Hudák, a player who plays for our club Slávia PU Prešov in the second and third leagues, personally met Kasparov.

On the first weekend of October, the traditional youth chess tournament The Baltic Way 2024 took place in Vilnius, Lithuania. What attracted us to this tournament was the fact that one of the legends of chess, multiple world champion Garry Kasparov, stops there every year.

We went to the tournament from Košice by train to Vienna and from there by plane directly to Vilnius, Lithuania. At the airport, we met other Slovaks who also signed up for this tournament. A total of 219 children from 11 countries played there, divided into 4 categories - of which 9 children were from Slovakia.

Michal fought in the oldest U14 category, where there were 38 players. He was seeded 16th and finished 17th after nine rounds with 5 points. He managed to win 4 times, draw 2 times and lose 3 times. Out of three Slovaks in this category, he finished highest. It's a shame especially losing in the first round - after that he fought as he should :-).

A great experience was meeting with Garry Kasparov, even if you had to stand in a long line for it, as the interest in it was of course huge, because everyone wanted a photo and signature of Kasparov.

Since Michal is already 14 years old, we cannot go there next year, as we do not meet the age limit, but for all you young chess players who do, we highly recommend this tournament.

Author of the article: Ing. Miroslav Tkač

Photo from the tournament