Together with Arne Kähler, Canadian WIM Svitlana Demchenko (photo) regularly entertains and trains readers of our website on the <a href="https://en.chessbase.com/search?pattern=Svitlana%20Demchenko">Svitlana’s Smart Moves</a> show. The 20-year-old from Ukraine also made smart moves at the Canadian Women’s Zonal tournament in Toronto, which ended at the beginning of April. She started as number 5 in the seeding list and ended up in a tie for first place with 7½/9 points. She finished second on tiebreaks behind rating favourite Maili-Jade Ouellet. | Photo: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ChessCanada">ChessCanada Facebook page</a>
As expected after the penultimate round, the German teams obtained a double victory at the Mitropa Cup and the Women’s Mitropa Cup. Germany competed with almost all of their best players and had a successful dress rehearsal for the upcoming Chess Olympiad in Budapest in September. | Photos: Frank Hoppe, Katharina Reinecke (German Chess Federation)
In the seventh round of the World Junior Championship, decisive results were seen on the top three boards, with Marc’Andria Maurizzi, Gleb Dudin (pictured) and Santiago Avila winning to enter the next round as co-leaders. Carissa Yip, in the meantime, is now the sole leader in the women’s section. | Photo: David Llada
Efim Geller, one of Ukraine’s greatest chess talents, would have turned 97 years old on March 8 this year. An extraordinary player, he also had a doctorate in Physical Education, and worked as a second to Tigran Petrosian, Boris Spassky and Anatoly Karpov. Experts estimate Geller was among the top ten players in the world for about twenty years.