Three rounds before the finish the 15-year-old international master from Moscow, reigning U14 World Champion Semen Lomasov is sharing the third place in the Moscow Open Men’s Cup of Russia tournament. After another victory in the sixth round he dropped in to the tournament press center and answered several questions.
- Hello, Semen! Let’s start with our favorite question: how many times did you take part in the Moscow Open?
- If to count children’s competitions (RSSU School Champions’ Cup – editorial remark) I’ve been playing since 2009. I won my first tournament. I participated in an amateur tournament for a couple of times, and since 2011 I’ve been playing in the main tournament of the Cup. I fulfilled the first international master norm in one of the tournaments, and last year I earned the first grandmaster norm.
- How were these six rounds going on for you?
- I’m satisfied with the result so far. In my opinion, I’m playing using almost all of my potential. I committed some mistakes, but my opponents also didn’t play ideally.
- Do you spend much time for the preparation to a game?
- I spend no more than two hours on the preparation to an exact game. In general, I’m studying variants that my opponent is playing, and exclusion of unexpectedness – it’s not nice when an opponent is playing something new.
- If you don’t play in any tournament, how many hours per day do you devote to chess?
- Now I don’t have much time for chess as I’m also studying at school. I can spend three hours maximum. However, when I have some free time I often visit different websites and watch games from different tournaments.
- Do you know what university will you enter?
- Honestly, not yet (laughing). I’m studying in the 10th form, and I still have half a year ahead of me to go to the competitions. Then I will need to make a choice: to play chess or to start serious preparation to enter a university.
- Tell our readers about your recent successes. Not long ago you showed a great result at the Junior World Championship.
- Yes, the tournament turned out to be quite good for me. I started with two wins, and then I was playing all the games against strong opponents. I can’t say, I had serious chances for medals but I was playing quite well and fulfilled the second grandmaster norm.
- Team Russia took the first place at the U16 Chess Olympiad. You won on the first board. Confide the secret of your success.
- I can’t say we were lucky. We had a very strong and united team, we didn’t have any “lost board”. For example, the team of Iran had three strong players but a very weak chess player was playing on the forth board. It can be said, they started the game with -1. Team of India was a favorite, but two of their players were very young and their games didn’t go on well.
I think, the key point of our success is our excellent communication with each other. Before the game we were usually standing in front of the playing hall, joking, laughing, our opponents looked surprised (laughing).
- What are you doing at free time, do you have a hobby?
- I love sport: love to play football, volleyball, table tennis. Sometimes I’m watching serials but trying not to go mad on it.
Questions were asked by Eldar Mukhametov and Alina Bivol