North Cyprus, where all your wishes are fulfilled

North Cyprus – the beginning of a chess tradition

Report by WGM Elena Partac

The island of Cyprus is obviously a territory blessed by God – a beautiful land of dreams that become reality. Our first visiting target was Buffavento Castle, located at 950 m above sea level – or 1001 steps needed to reach it. It was built as a part of the defensive chain against Arab raids. A birds-eye view of North Cyprus will surely stay in your memory for a long long time. Take a look…

Buffavento castle, the view from above 1000 meters

Enjoying the view – our reporter WGM Elena Partac

North Cyprus covers about one-third of Cyprus island, approximetely 3400 sq km. A large part of this land is covered with citrus and olive groves, pine forests and cypresses. It is one of the few unspoiled corners of the Mediterranean world. The Flora and fauna of North Cyprus is varied and it reminded me of our school Biology book. It seems like nothing is missing on this beautiful land.

The view of Noth Cyprus seems like a picture post-card

Cactus plants doing extremely very well in North Cyprus 

The truly amazing thing is that each occupying force left a part of itself on this island, a rich and colourful diversity of cultures: Greeks, Egyptians, Assyrians, Phoenicians and Persians, Romans, Byzantines and Ottoman Turks.

The Golden Beach and Turquoise Mediterranean

We can not continue without mentioning the turquoise color of the Mediterranean Sea surounding the island. And if it’s time for the beach, you cannot miss the Golden Beach area. A place where you can see the sea floor through 50 m of crystaline water.

Chess in North Cyprus

Probably, we know only some basic and insignificant information about chess in North Cyprus, but being there and visiting several chess clubs and chess players, you can see that this magnificent island has started insistently to develop chess, and it seems that nothing could ever stop it. When chess becomes an object of study in schools and a real hobby for a lot of citizens, you understand how important it is to follow the needs and wishes of the people as well as chess players living in North Cyprus. The international tournament “Duzkaya” was obviously one of the first, but important, steps on the way toward the bright future of chess in North Cyprus. The first edition of “Duzkaya” took place in Kyrenia town, renowned for the Kyrenia Castle. The Chess Federation of North Cyprus, together with the Municipality of Kyrenia town, have been successfully included in the organization of this event. Hopefully it will become a traditional international chess tournament.

“Duzkaya” International Tournament

The first edition of the “Duzkaya” international chess tournament was held from 29 April until the 10th of May, in the “Malpas Hotel” city of Kyrenia, which was also one of the event sponsors. There were twelve players from Turkey and the Republic of Moldova who played a round roben tournament. The first three places were won by three Moldavian chess players: Iulian Baltag, WGM Elena Partac and WGM Carolina Smokina.

Unfortunately the games are not easily available. They are in the possession of the organisers. If we can get hold of them we will add a link to this article.

The tournament atmosphere, sometimes covered with the sounds of classic music coming from the hall of the Malpas Hotel, truly improved the participants results.

The arbiter shares sweets with the players….anything to make people feel good!

The playing hall in Malpas Hotel

The winner of the tournament, Julian Baltag (2350) from Moldova

WGM Elena Partac, the second place in the tournament

Moldavian WGM Karolina Smokina, third place

Concentated from the first moves, with black Atasin Tarik, multiple champion of North Cyprus, 4th place in the tournament

Here we are…the participants of the event, with the Moldavian players in front

And if you really have an unfulfilled wish, you can come to the Tree of Wishes, to the branches of which you can attach a strip of clothing with your wish on it. It will surely became true…believe me.

About the author Elena Partac, born on 25th March 1984, is a Woman Grandmaster and member of the Moldova Olympic Chess, for which she has played in three Olympiads. Elena won the Woman Chess Champion of Moldova three times. Elena will be graduating at the University, Faculty of Journalism and Public Relations, in two weeks! She is also the director of the Moldavian Chess Federation web site. Elena tells us that she fell in love with chess when she was five years old. [Photo: Pufichek]

Addendum

Dimitris Skyrianoglou, chief editor of the Greek chess magazine "Skaki gia olous" (Chess for All), sent us the following message:

A few other voices:

Wikipedia tells us the following:

Cyprus, officially the Republic of Cyprus, is a Eurasian island country in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, south of Turkey (Anatolia). It is the third-largest island in the Mediterranean and one of the most popular tourist destinations there, attracting over 2.4 million tourists per year. A former British colony, it gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1960 and became a Commonwealth republic in 1961. The Republic of Cyprus is a developed country and has been a member of the European Union since 1 May 2004.

In 1974, following a period of violence between Greek and Turkish Cypriots and an attempted Greek Cypriot coup sponsored by the Greek military junta of that period, Turkey invaded and occupied one-third of the island. This led to the displacement of thousands of Cypriots and the establishment of a separate Turkish Cypriot political entity in the north. This event and its resulting political situation is a matter of ongoing dispute.

The Republic of Cyprus, the internationally recognized state, has de jure sovereignty over the island of Cyprus and surrounding waters. However, the island is de facto partitioned into four main parts:

• the area under the effective control of the Republic of Cyprus in the south of the island;
• the area in the north, styling itself the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus;
• the United Nations-controlled Green Line, separating the two; and
• two Sovereign Base Areas (Akrotiri and Dhekelia), over which the United Kingdom retained jurisdiction after Cypriot independence.

Read more about Cyprus here. And about Northern Cyprus here.