A fourth-year student in the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics at Novosibirsk State University, Roman Kezin, has become the silver medalist in the National Student Chess Championship. This was held during the Cup of the Russian State Social University (RSUU) Moscow Open.
In the individual competition with a result of 7 points out of 9 possible, Roman Kezin took second place. He lost to a student from the Ural State Mining University.
The sportsman admits that he had no time to prepare for the tournament so he did not expect the gold medal.
— I participated in the championship of the student league for the first time, but I had already played in the Moscow Open tournament «A». I did not prepare thoroughly in advance for the tournament, so most of my training was during the competitions. The main difficulties that I had to face were psychological because before participating in the tournament I had not played classical chess for more than a year, said Roman Kezin.
According to Pavel Maletin, the President of the Novosibirsk Region Chess Federation, Roman is one of the most promising young chess players in the region, a player with grandmaster potential. He has the title Novosibirsk regional male champion.He became the winner of the Regional Governor's Cup in June 2016.
— Despite traditionally high requirements for student academic achievement, NSU actively develops a chess program, says Pavel Maletin. For many years the Novosibirsk State University team has been considered one of the strongest in Novosibirsk. The University has an excellent chess club, which organizes classes with students. From the 22 of August to 30 of August, Novosibirsk will hold the Russian student championship. We hope that Roman will claim victory.
The National Student Chess League championship is held within the framework of the Moscow State University Cup for the second time. This year, representatives from 12 countries took part in the competition, including one grand master, two international masters, and sixteen FIDE masters. All in all, 125 chess players participated in the tournament. In the team competition, teams from 31 Russian universities competed for prizes.
