By Andrey Avsitidiysky
Cyprus joined the International Chess Federation (FIDE) in 1961. The first national championship was held in the same year. The first grandmaster on the island appeared 55 years later. Andreas Kelires’ talent gave him the opportunity to enter the world chess elite. At the age of 15-18, he repeatedly defeated grandmasters with a rating of 2600+. One of the Nicosia native’s “victims” was a participant in the world championship match, Nigel Short.
FIRST CYPRIOT CHAMPIONSHIP
I learnt about the first Cypriot championship from the book “Chess Championships of Cyprus and Greece” by Spyros Louris. This happened thanks to the prompting of friends from the Kaissa Chess Club in Nicosia, who two years ago published an extract from this book on their website.
32 players took part in the championship. Five of them reached the final. The champion was determined in the match between Sotiris Georgiades and Georgios Kleopas. After seven games the score was tied. In the eighth game Kleopas was successful. Curiously, the future champion was second in the final five.
NINE-TIME CHAMPION
Agathoklis Constantinou won the highest number of championship cups – nine. He won the best in 1969, 1977, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1987, 1989 and 1991. Unfortunately, about three years ago, the nine-time Cypriot champion died.
‘Agathoklis and I are from the same village, Vasa. He worked at Barclays Bank in Limassol, spoke excellent English and read a lot. My friend had a great opening preparation, it was very hard to play with him, ‘ recalled 87-year-old Giorgos Argyrides, who took part in two Cypriot championships.
According to my interlocutor, one of these tournaments was held under the round robin system and the other under the Olympic system. The chess clock was classical, i.e. games were played without adding time for each move. A chess player had two hours for the first 40 moves. After 40 moves the game could be postponed.
‘We often met for chess in Limassol at the Acropolis restaurant on Gladstonos Street, which my father rented. About half a century ago, when the place closed, we moved to the PASYDY club of the civil servants’ union next to the municipal park. And we still play chess almost every day’, summarised Giorgos.
Some 15 years ago Stelios Abatzidis, winner of the Cyprus Chess Open 2024, played a few games of blitz with Agathoklis Constantinou, who was then about 70 years old. According to Abatzidis, the nine-time Cypriot champion combined excellent positional awareness with sharp combination vision.
Agathoklis Constantinou – Morelos Castro Aguilar, 1968 Olympics in Lugano (Switzerland)
The sacrifice of the knight – 19. Nb5 – emphasised both the vulnerable position of the black queen, and the unreliability of the fortress of the black king. If the knight is taken, the white rook goes to a3, the bishop retreats to c5, the second bishop takes on b5, and it’s game over. Black deflected the sacrifice by playing 19…Nf6, but after 20. Qc5 Rhe8 21. Nd6+ the outcome of the game was predetermined.
CYPRUS AT THE OLYMPIADS
Cyprus made its debut at the Chess Olympiads in 1962 in Varna (Bulgaria). The best results – 50% of team points – were achieved in 1982 in Lucerne (Switzerland), in 1996 in Yerevan (Armenia), in 2002 in Bled (Slovenia), in 2014 in Tromsø (Norway) and in 2024 in Budapest (Hungary).
At the 1984 Olympiad in Thessaloniki, the future three-time Cypriot champion (1986, 1990, 1992) Marios Schinis won the gold medal in the individual event with a score of seven and a half points out of 10. Four years later, again in Thessaloniki, Costas Perdikis won bronze with 6.5 out of 8.
In 2000 in Istanbul (Turkey) and 2002 in Bled, Greek grandmaster Vasilios Kotronias played on the first board for the Cypriot national team. The seven-time Greek champion (later he brought the number of victories in Greek championships to 10 – that became the record) did not lose a single game, won 15 and drew 13.
FIRST GRANDMASTER
In 2014 in Tromsø, 15-year-old Andreas Kelires won his first grandmaster norm, scoring 9 points out of 11 on the Cyprus national team’s first board. And in September 2016, the island had its first grandmaster. However, by that time Andreas had already changed chess federation because he moved to Greece.
‘The Olympiad in Tromsø was the perfect fulfilment of a dream come true for me. It was probably my best result and the best performance of the Cypriot chess team at the Olympiads’, was Andreas’ response to my question about his most memorable chess experience related to Cyprus.
Kelires’ talent gave him the opportunity to enter the world’s chess elite, but he preferred to pursue higher education in Greece. The two-time champion of Cyprus (2013, 2014) has defeated strong grandmasters more than once. Among his “victims” is Nigel Short, a participant in the world championship match (1993) with Garry Kasparov.
‘This game was played in the 2017 European Team Championship. Both white and black rooks are under attack. Their successive capture gives White nothing. Andreas found the winning move Re7 in three seconds. Taking the rook leads to a checkmate on the last horizontal and retreating from e8 leads to the loss of the rook on f3. After the move Re7 Short gave up’.
In early May 2024, Kelires took first place in an international tournament in Paphos. Andreas graduated from the National Technical University of Athens in the summer before finishing first in Kavala (Greece), fourth in Belgrade (Serbia) and ninth in Krakow (Poland), scoring 5.5 points out of 7 in the Greek Team Championships and 4.5 out of 8 in the Budapest Olympics.
‘Work [at National Technical University of Athens] comes first now, and chess is just a hobby from now on. I don’t want to approach chess as a professional anymore, although it’s not easy. I basically wish to enjoy playing rather than just enjoy winning’, Andreas told me in early November.
According to Kelires, becoming a top player is very difficult. If you don’t think about chess 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it’s impossible. Based on Andreas’ opinion, if someone chooses the life of a professional player, they should be psychologically ready for huge defeats and drawbacks.
‘Chess can offer you the best feelings in the world when you are winning, it can also be cruel and devastating when things are not going your way. A player who can psychologically handle the ‘ugly’ side of chess is destined to be great’, said the first grandmaster who grew up in Cyprus.
The author of the article is the owner of the news site evropakipr.com, Cyprus Chess Champion (2010) as part of the Limassol team and bronze medallist of Cyprus Chess Open 2024.
