London – PhosAgro ("PhosAgro" or "the Company") (Moscow Exchange, LSE: PHOR), one of the world’s leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers, is the strategic sponsor of the final match of the 2018 World Chess Championship, which is taking place 9-28 November in London.
The final match to name the world champion of chess is the main event in the chess world and the final event of the World Chess Championship 2017-2018, which is supported by PhosAgro, including the Grand Prix stage in Moscow and the Candidates Tournament, where three of the eight grandmasters were from Russia.
It has become a tradition for the company to support the World Chess Championship and the final match for the title of world chess champion (Sochi in 2014 and New York in 2016). This year, in London, reigning champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway and challenger Fabiano Caruana of the United States are competing for the chess crown in a match of 12 games using classical time control, with a possible tiebreaker if the match ends in a tie.
“I hope everything goes smoothly, and with all my heart I wish the two top players in the world a beautiful and a fair game,” said FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich at the opening ceremony on 8 November. The match participants thanked the organisers and sponsors of the event for their contribution to the development of world chess.
At the opening ceremony, PhosAgro CEO Andrey Guryev represented not only his global company, which has for many years been supporting chess, a game that is played all over the world, but also the Russian Chess Federation, where he is vice-president and a member of the Board of Trustees. On 10 November, Andrey Guryev made the symbolic first move to start the second round of the match to determine the world chess champion.
“We believe that interest in chess is growing all over the world, the game is developing, moving from TV screens to the Internet and mobile devices, winning new fans all around the world. With joint efforts on the part of FIDE and the Russian Chess Federation, we hope to take chess to a new level of popularity and importance. And as vice-president of the Russian Chess Federation, I am sure that, in the coming years, we will manage to return the chess crown to Russia,” said Guryev.
PhosAgro has been supporting chess since 2010 as the permanent strategic partner of the Russian Chess Federation. During this eight-year period, Russian children have won more than 100 medals in youth competitions, and Russian chess players have been named world champion in blitz chess and speed chess (twice) and were twice runners-up for the title of world chess champion. Russian men have also won the World Cup three times.
In the cities where PhosAgro operates, Cherepovets, Kirovsk, Apatity, Volkhov, Balakovo, the Company supports education centres as part of the DROZD programme (Educated and Healthy Children of Russia), where various sports are cultivated, including chess, which gets special attention through chess classes at sponsored schools and preschools.
In addition to chess, PhosAgro is a long-time partner of the Russian Olympians Foundation, the Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation, the Moscow Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation, the Russian Swimming Federation and the St Petersburg Regional Judo Federation, and it is a sponsor of the Severyanka volleyball club (Vologda region), the Avtodor basketball club and the Turbina Balakovo Speedway Team (Saratov region), thus contributing to the international success of Russian sport.