27.12.2004 Half a century of «Vecherka»
Championships of the city in blitz chess celebrated a jubilee this year – they are 50 years old! The first champion in 1954 was V.Korchnoi, who then for eight times more won such competitions, which were invariably held under the aegis of the newspaper "Vecherniy Petersburg". GM A.Kochiev has still more victories – ten. The last tournament was the first one, at which there was no G.Chepukaitis, the legendary master of blitz. From his six victories Genrikh Mikhailovich gained the first one in 1965 and the last one – in 2002. And it's no wonder that organizers (during the whole half a century the main of them is a sports reporter, veteran of sports journalism V.Semenov) devoted the competition to memory of Chepukaitis.