The Department of Pedagogy and Psychology in Physical Education and Sport together with the Sports Department of Volga Region University held a simultaneous chess session.

During the session, one person (the sessioner) plays simultaneously with several opponents. As a rule, highly qualified professionals participate in this format of the game - almost all world chess champions have played simultaneous game sessions. 
Such a spectacular event is an excellent propaganda of intellectual games, and for amateur players it is a great opportunity to play with a high-level professional in conditions when his skill is somewhat "dissipated" due to the large number of opponents.

In the first half of the 20th century, the record for the number of games played in a session was 604. The record session was held by Grandmaster Gayem Magami in Tehran in 2011 and took 25 hours and 5 minutes. Another record for simultaneous play, recorded in the Guinness Book of Records, belongs to Hungarian chess player Zsuzsa Polgar, who played 1131 games (on 326 boards) in 16 hours. 

The tournament was opened by Iskander Galeev, Director of the Institute of Physical Culture, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences at Volga Region University. The tournament was organised by Natalia Shigapova, deputy director for educational work of the Institute of Physical Culture, candidate of pedagogical sciences, and Daniyar Sadretdinov, candidate of geographical sciences, associate professor of the Department of Pedagogy and Psychology in Physical Culture and Sports.

16 players took part in the session - from college and university students to representatives of departments and departments.
The tournament's presenter was Zarina Shafigullina, a fourth-year student at the Volga Region University, winner and prize-winner of All-Russian and international tournaments, Master of Sports of Russia.
The results of the tournament confirmed Zarina's skills - she has 14 wins and 2 draws.

Text: Daria Bezzubova
Photo: Danil Alyokhin