Chess stars of the Baltic Sea

The name stands for an international tournament of the youngsters from the BSR, which was held in Narva on 6 - 9 October 2005. This was the first competition of such level, having gathered 60 best young chess-players from 5 Baltic countries: Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Russian St. Petersburg.

The event took place on the initiative of the local municipality and the chess club "Maletäht" ("Chess Star" in Estonian) and was dedicated to the 90th birthday of the famous Estonian chess-player Paul Keres born in Narva.

Narva has united young talents from 5 countries at chess tables in the Knight's Hall of the medieval castle. 10 strongest players in all official age categories from 10 to 18 represented each participating country. A round team tournamen has allowed to determine not only the strongest national team, but also the winners in each age group, who, de facto, have become the champions of the Baltic Sea Region.

The winning team came from Poland. The following positions have been taken by the teams of Lithuania, Saint-Petersburg, Latvia, Narva and Estonia. In October next year young chess-players from the Baltic countries will come together again. The "Maletäht" director Mr Leonid Peleshev emphasizes that the circle of participants will be expanded and invitations to the Narva competition will be sent also to representatives of Finland and Sweden. It was decided to apply for inclusion of the tournament "Chess Stars of the Baltic Sea" into the official calendar of International Chess Federation. The chief umpire of the tournament, the international category referee Mr Alberts Cimiòð has noted the high level of organization of the competition and the fact that the participants of the "Chess Stars of the Baltic Sea" were provided with all necessary re-creation conditions, including city excursions.