Freedom24 is honoured to present the second article in its series dedicated to the development of chess in Cyprus. This special series explores the rich history and dynamic evolution of chess on the island, highlighting Freedom24’s commitment to promoting the strategic and cultural significance of the sport. The first article is available in the Sport section of the Cyprus Mail.
Until 15 years ago, the Cypriot chess championships were played mainly by adults. In the early 2010s, the federation made a bet on training children and teenagers. Now the country’s champions are 13-year-olds, and the national team is made up of talented youngsters supported by experienced players.
By Andrey Avsitidiysky
Chess players who became champions of Cyprus at the age of 13
2013 – Andreas Kelires
2016 – Konstantinos Michaelidis
2023 – Victoria Sokolova (women)
SEVEN-TIME CHAMPION
Konstantinos Michaelidis started playing chess at the age of eight and a half when his grandfather, Yuri Anatolievich, came to Larnaca from Chelyabinsk on holiday. His grandson loved the game – he, according to his grandfather, ‘started actively moving the pieces’, and somehow it became immediately clear that the boy was quite good at it.
Kostya’s first coach was FIDE master and six-time national champion (1999, 2003, 2005, 2010, 2011,2012) Antonis Antoniou, perhaps the best position-style chess player in Cyprus at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries. Children are often eager to make a move as quickly as possible, even if they have time to think about it and the position requires painstaking analysis. This is not the case with Michaelidis.
The first time I saw Kostya was in 2012 at the Cyprus Championship. A serious kid, he approached each table, studied the position, drew conclusions and moved on. A year later he already sat at the board, and in 2015 in Porto Carras, Greece, at the age of 12 he became vice-champion of the World Amateur Chess Championship (the tournament involved chess players with a rating of up to 2000).
In 2016, the 13-year-old master’s candidate won the Cypriot championship for the first time. The now 22-year-old medical student at the University of Cyprus is a seven-time national champion (2016, 2017, 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024). I would venture to guess that Agathoklis Constantinou’s record (nine titles) will soon be broken.
‘I believe that Kostya can become a grandmaster in time. But only on one condition – constant and painstaking work on his chess shortcomings. Kostya is a thoughtful and persistent boy. I believe that he will succeed’, International Master Konstantin Mesropov, who coached his namesake in the 2010s, told me.
In the spring of 2024, Michaelidis took fourth place at an international tournament in Paphos, where Andreas Kelires took first place, with Israeli grandmasters Ido Gorshtein, Avital Boruchovsky and Eygeny Postny in second, third and fifth places. The FIDE master combines his university studies with chess, training both on his own and with the Greek grandmaster Ioannis Papaioannou.
MASTER OF THE KNOCKOUT
Alexandros Isaakidis was introduced to chess at the age of 13 in Paphos. His first coach was Arkadios Koulaxidis, who played a decisive role in the teenager’s development as a chess player. At the age of 15 Sasha achieved a draw with Grandmaster Zurab Azmaiparashvili (European Champion 2003) in a simultaneous play session. At that moment he realised that he had the potential to become a strong chess player.
‘My style can best be described as a combination of aggressive and positional chess. Depending on the situation and my opponent’s style of play, I adapt to him like a chameleon. My two favourite players, whom I have always admired for their aggressive style and masterpiece games, are Garry Kasparov (arguably the greatest chess player of all time) and Mikhail Tal’, says my 25-year-old interlocutor.
At the 2024 Olympiad in Budapest, the three-time Cypriot vice-champion (2020, 2023, 2024) scored 7.5 points out of 9 on the second board of the Cypriot team, fulfilling the FIDE master’s norm. If someone had told Alexander before the Olympics that he would get the title two rounds before the end of the tournament, he would have thought the guy was crazy. Budapest gave Isaakidis an ‘unbelievable experience’ and he is very happy to have achieved his long-awaited goal.
‘We performed well as a team because we were not afraid to play with any opponent. We supported and motivated each other. I remember analysing the games after dinner, the Bermuda party [the party before the day off], eating strudel, the playing hall full of chess legends, the excitement in the last minutes before winning the deciding game for the FIDE master title’, recalls the University of Portsmouth graduate.
Alexandros Isaakidis – Damir Levacic
14. Bg5!! (the beginning of a series of four blows, which ended in a knockout) Ke7 15. d6+! Ke6 16. d7! fxg5 17. Rf8!! Kxd7 18. Raf1 Qb6 19. R1f7+ Ke6 20. Qd1 Qd6 21. Qf1 Bd7 22. Rxg8. Black surrendered. According to the winner, the game could have ended with a beautiful sacrifice of the queen on the f5 field with a checkmate on the next pawn move, but the excitement had taken its toll.
‘Am I ready to become an international master? I realise that I am very far from that level. The limited time I devote to chess because of my full-time job and the fact that I only participate in three tournaments a year make this goal difficult to achieve. But never say never!’ summarises Isaakidis.
TALENT POOL
Rafail Antoniou, 16, is a two-time bronze medallist (2023, 2024) at the Cyprus Championship. In his Olympic debut game (2022 in Chennai), he defeated in 17 moves Togo champion who had a higher rating than him. Preferring sharp play, Raphael favours positional awareness and is reliable in his appearances for the national team.
Yakini Tchouka – Rafail Antoniou
Black remained without castling, but all his pieces are maximally active or come into play with killing power. 15… Rd8! 16. Qc4 (White should have moved to a heavy endgame by retreating the queen to f3, and now his king is left unprotected) Rh4! 17. Qb3 Re4+! 18. Be2. Having made this move, white surrendered.
On the heels of the national team members are Samuel Constantinou, Savvas Konstantinides, Daniil Daniil, Evangelos Hadjidemetriou, Andreas Hadjinicolaou, Christodoulos Daniil, Vasilis Teocharous, Renos Komodromos, Pantelis Saridis, Andreas Karaolis, Kyriakos Skouroupatis, Andreas Kyriakides, Panagiotis Chiras. Remember these names.
The oldest is 25 years old, and the vast majority are between nine and 16. In April 2024, at an international tournament in Paphos, 9-year-old Kyriakos Skouroupathis defeated a FIDE master with a rating of 2296, and in November he scored six points out of a possible 11 at the World Cadet Championship (Under-10 category) in Montesilvano, Italy.
There are more and more young talents in Cypriot chess. In the Cyprus 2024 Open Chess Championship, held in February-March in Limassol with the support of Freedom24, the general partner of the Cyprus Chess Federation, 86 participants took part. 63 of them were juniors. This is a record.
The author of the article is the owner of the news site evropakipr.com, Cyprus Chess Champion (2010) as part of the Limassol team, bronze medallist of Cyprus Chess Open 2024.