A friendly match between the youth teams of South Ossetia and the Republic of Nicaragua is taking place on Friday in online format.
Before the start of the intellectual competition, Advisor to Minister of Foreign Affairs of South Ossetia Zarina Kochieva congratulated the players on their participation in such a unique event.
“Your meeting today at the chessboard is probably confirmation that sport has no boundaries. Today’s competition is not only a celebration of chess, but also a symbol of our friendship, solidarity and cooperation, which has no boundaries and there can be no barriers," Kochieva said.
She has expressed confidence that the competition will be held in a wonderful, friendly atmosphere and will allow all participants to show their best qualities, their skills, passion for sports, fortitude, the will to win, and wished everyone the interesting game.
National Director of the Chess Program of Ministry of Education of the Republic of Nicaragua Pamela Arlarcon welcomed the tournament participants, emphasizing that chess unites.
“I am honored to welcome you today on behalf of our government and President Daniel Ortega. Today we are meeting each other not only as representatives of our countries, but also as admirers of chess, which unites people and erases boundaries. This is not only a game, but also a manifestation of friendship, our intercultural ties and diplomacy,” Arlarcon said.
The head of the Rossotrudnichestvo representative office in the Republic, Sergei Komissarov, noted that “when such events occur, politics fades into the background, and strong humanitarian cooperation arises.”
“We are glad that this friendly tournament will be taking place today. There is such a thing as public diplomacy, and now what is happening is happening precisely in this vein. Athletes, communicating with each other on the chessboard, do not experience difficulties in language communication, because chess has the same rules for everyone,” Komissarov has emphasized.
The head of the Chess Federation of the Republic, Georgy Shavlokhov, noted that this is the first such chess tournament.
“We have held various events before. We had joint tournaments with Cuba, but this is our first one-on-one match like this. Any international interaction between South Ossetia is to the benefit of our Republic, especially with large countries, especially with Latin America. We have similar values with them, they were also fighting for their freedom,” Shavlokhov said.
He added that the initiator of the tournament was Nicaragua itself.
In addition, according to Shavlokhov, in order for the tournament to take place, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Ossetia, together with the Chess Federation of the Republic and the representative office of Rossotrudnichestvo, carried out a lot of work. .
Shavlokhov has noted that most chess tournaments take place at the Russian House in Tskhinval and expressed gratitude to Sergei Komissarov for this opportunity.
