National chess team coached by Dutch-Bosnian grandmaster

Dutch-Bosnian grandmaster Ivan Sokolov had his first training session with the Faroese national chess team on 1 December.

This session was carried out via video link, with the Faroese players sitting in the Faroes and the new coach sitting in Holland.

The players and the coach say they were happy with the first session, and another three such sessions will take place this month.

Talvlandsliðið, Talv

Caption: 

Faroese chess national team players at this summer’s Chess Olympiad in India: Pictured from left: Luitjen Akselsson Apol, Høgni Egilstoft Nielsen, John Rødgaard, Helgi Dam Ziska and Rógvi Egilstoft

An assessment will be made after Christmas. If all goes well, Solokov is expected to travel to the Faroes for his first in-person training session.

In August this year, Sokolov caused a sensation when he led the Uzbek national chess to victory at the 44th Chess Olympiad in India.

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The six players picked for the national team are Helgi Dam Ziska, Høgni Egilstoft Nielsen, Martin Poulsen, Rógvi Egilstoft, Luitjen Akselsson Apol and Jón í Horni Nielsen.

The International Chess Federation FIDE ranks the Faroes 77th out of 200 member states.

Read the Faroese version of this article here.

More Faroese News in English.