Competition Day 1

Competitions of the 2022 FISU World University Championship Mind Sports kicked off this morning.
The symbolic first move of the 1st round of the Women’s chess competition was played by the Vice-president of FISU Uganda Peninnah Aligawesa Kabenge. The symbolic first move in Men’s Chess was made by the Championship President, Koenraad Keignaert at the beginning of the 2nd Round.
All accreditated players were present at the chess competition on time. The competition started without any problems and went smoothly.

There was quiet exceptional game of the first round, in which player Anna Christina Du Plessis from South Africa with much lower rating (1586) playing black pieces won against stronger with rating 2196.
The second round proved to be just as exciting as the first. As the tournament progresses the level gap between the players becomes smaller. Even so we still saw some great draws by players with several hundreds of elos less than their opponents, with the Ugandian player Mark Nyola (1680) even beating his much higher rated opponent.
Considering that many players participating in the Championship have titles, the level of games is quite high.
As the last games are being finished, only five women and eight men are left with a perfect score after the first day of competition. Today showed that not even a grandmaster is certain to win every game, so tomorrow may bring even more surprises!

The bridge competition kicked off with Taipei 1 and Taipei 2 on the BBO livestream. Taipei 2 took a very good start but Taipei 1 fought themselves back into the game. It was exciting till the end but an aggresive opening decided the game.

The last round of the first day was played by Belgian Youngster (Sam Verstuyft and Kobe Wees) against Thailand (Thanathat Dechakulkamjorn – Akaraphon Jantaraphum) in the closed room. All were very kind and still in good spirits. Thailand was (and still is) in the lead. The Belgians try to climb up in the ranking, but it was not easy against this good team!
 
Fair play and a good atmosphere were present during the games as always as youngsters are competing each other.

Find selection of photos here.