Winner of the Moscow Open Women’s Cup of Russia tournament Anastasia Bodnaruk told about her way to success to the correspondents of the tournament official website.
- Anastasia, disclose us the secret of your success in the recent tournament.
- The tournament didn’t go on well from the beginning: I lost my first game to the much weaker than me opponent. Of course, it didn’t inspire me with optimistic mood, but I managed to get together, find my manner of play and win all other games.
- What of your games of this tournament would you single out?
- I would mark two games – one against Daria Charochkina, in which I was, no doubt, lucky. Dasha committed a blunder, after that I won two pawns and finally won the game. And also my last game, which defined the finial ranking, you know, I had very bad tie-breaks. At some point the draw wouldn’t fit in the struggle for the first place, I needed only victory.
- How did you prepare to the tournament? Did someone help you?
- Honestly, there was no special preparation, it was a very hard end of the last year: participation in the Superfinal of the Championship of Russia, a trip to the World Rapid and Blitz Championship in Saudi Arabia. That’s why I tried to come back to good conditions and start a year in positive mood. My constant coach is Andrey Lukin, and I would love to thank him for the support, he provided me with!
- How is it going on with support of leading chess players in St. Petersburg?
- This year the senior management of the St. Petersburg Chess Federation decided to take away my grant that was quite poor at that. In St. Petersburg the main attention is paid to men’s chess, women’s chess doesn’t attract that much of attention.
- For all that your team usually plays successfully – every year you win medals in the Championships of Russia in team event…
- Yes, but there are few people who can appreciate it. Our Federation is not interested in a trip of the women’s team to Eurocup. That’s why many perspective chess players stopped playing chess and started to coach.
- Have you ever thought of becoming a coach?
- I help my younger sister Ksyusha. So far, it’s enough for me, but maybe some time in future I will switch on to the coaching activity.
- What are your closest plans?
- I’m going to the European Rapid Chess Championship (Tbilisi, Georgia – editorial remark), and of course to the European Chess Championship that will be held in Slovakia.
- Thank you for the conversation. I wish you new victories!
Questions were asked by Eldar Mukhametov and Alina Bivol