Anatoly Karpov to face simultaneously 40 chess players in Moldova

World chess champion Anatoly Karpov will play simultaneously with 40 chess players on February 18. His adversaries will be the best children chess players of Moldova. According to organizers, Moldovan chess champion Viorel Bologan will start to play with 20 of the chess players after a series of moves, Info-Prim Neo reports. In a news conference, Anatoly Karpov said he decided to come to Moldova because he has established friendly relations with our country long ago and cooperated with many Moldovan players over time. He considers that the chess in Moldova is promoted rather intensively and his participation in the chess festival held these days will be a catalyst for the success of the given event. The simultaneous chess games are a stage of the International Chess Festival “Veaceslav Chebanenko”, which is organized by the Chess Federation of Moldova. The Federation’s chairman, MP Igor Dodon told the same news conference that in Moldova there are many talented children playing chess and the possibility of playing with a world champion will be a substantial stimulus for them to improve their skills. The initiator of the festival Viorel Bologan said that though Anatoly Karpov’s visit to Moldova has a very heavy program, he hopes he will manage to play a friendly chess game with the world champion. The International Chess Festival “Veaceslav Chebanenko”, organized by the Chess Federation of Moldova, is taking place on February 18-19. The memorial is held on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the birth of the emeritus coach of Moldova Veceslav Chebanenko.