The city of Astana in Kazakhstan is hosting the Women's World Chess Team Championship
from March 2nd to 12 in the Duman
Hotel in Astana. Ten best
teams in the world are participating: China, Russia, Ukraine, USA, India,
France, Turkey, Georgia, Rumania and Kazakhstan. Each team consists of five
players, with four playing in each of the nine rounds of this round robin tournament.
Time control is 90 minutes per 40 moves and thirty minutes until the end of
the game plus 30 seconds increment per move.
Interview with a player in need
IM Salome Melia: “I’m not playing only for the team, I'm also
playing for money”
Anastasiya Karlovich: Salome, you’ve been
playing for the National Georgian team for so many years. Is it really important
and crucial for you to represent your country in such tournaments as World Women
Team Championship?
Salome Melia: It’s a great responsibility for me to
represent my country in such an important event. I think it’s important
to any country to be here. In ther second round I played my first game in the
tournament. I made a draw against Qi Guo from China. It was a key match for
Georgia against China.
How do you estimate the chance of your team? How difficult was your game
today?
Of course we should not underestimate the Chinese team, but we should note
that they came here without their strongest players. Of course we want to win.
As for my game I would say that my opponent didn’t fight for the initiative.
As a result, it was easy to equalize, the position was simple, and so it was
easy draw.
In round three IM Salome Melia defeated WIM Natacha Benmesbahin 86 moves
This tournament is especially important for me, as I find myself in a critical
situation in my life.
Can you please share with us what happened?
I don’t want to exaggerate and make a tragedy, but the situation is
quite difficult for me. I have a daughter who is four months old and who has
got health problem – a heart defect. So I’m not playing only for
the team here, I'm also playing for money, because I want her to live. The operation
costs a lot of money.
Can you tell us how expensive the operation is and where the surgery must
take place?
The operation is very difficult and unfortunately impossible do perform in
Georgia. We need to go to Germany, where the operation costs 60,000 Euros. We
received a response from the USA, but there it would cost about a million. The
operation should be done before the end of March, but it is difficult to find
the amount of money I need. I really hope that the operation will help, as no
one guarantees the result. It is very difficult to do heart surgery on a child.
We ask journalists to appeal to the chess community, philanthropists and
ask to help Salome Melia in her difficult situation. You can send money to this
account:
Beneficiary: Salome Melia
Number of account: GE57PC0193600100007067
Bank code (SWIFT): MIBGGE22
Name of bank: ProCredit Bank, Tbilisi, Georgia
address of bank: 21 Al. Kazbegi Ave., 0160 Tbilisi, Georgia.
See also this FIDE
appeal site
Copyright
ChessBase
