Spectators watch and play at World Chess Championship in New York
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[November 19, 2016]
By Melissa Fares
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Brooklyn chess
teacher Boris Izrayelit, 33, had to keep his eyes on two games at
once at the World Chess Championship on Friday.
World champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway and challenger Sergey
Karjakin of Russia were playing the sixth game of the match in the
Fulton Market Building in lower Manhattan. In an adjoining room,
Izrayelit watched them on video screens while next to him, two of
his students, Nura, 10, and Vincenzo, 9, were playing a game of
their own.
"These are two of my best chess players," Izrayelit proudly said,
adding that he has taught some 400 children at Success Academy in
Cobble Hill, Brooklyn for four years. "Just watch."
Since the championship started on Nov. 11, Izrayelit and thousands
of spectators have gathered at the site to watch Carlsen, 25, defend
the title he has held since 2013.
Some have traveled from the other end of the world.
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Oscar Estay, 42, from Concepcion, Chile, said he had attended every
game so far and would continue to do so until the Nov. 30 awards
ceremony, even though he is certain that Carlsen will walk out a
world champion once again.
"I already know who's going to win," said Estay, who started playing
chess when he was eight and is the president of his city's chess
club. "I am here for the ambience. There are people from
everywhere."
Robert Villeneuve, 53, traveled to New York from Montreal and was
sitting across the table from Estay.
"One of my biggest regrets in life is not going to the last World
Chess Championship here in New York in 1995," Villeneuve said of the
year when Russian great Garry Kasparov successfully defended his
title against Viswanathan Anand of India at the World Trade Center.
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![](../images/111916pics/sports51.jpg)
Magnus Carlsen, of Norway, reacts at his match with Sergey Karjakin,
of Russia, during their round 5 of the 2016 World Chess Championship
in New York U.S., November 17, 2016. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
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"I thought, if I don't go this time, when will I be able to go?"
This year's championship, staged by FIDE, the world chess
federation, has 12 games and seven "rest days" for Carlsen and
Karjakin, 26.
So far, all six games played have ended in draws, with half a point
awarded for a draw and one point for a win.
"It's fun to be here," Tyler Landsman, 10, said sitting across from
his father who taught him how to play chess.
"It feels a bit more interesting being here than it does just
sitting in front of a chess board at our house."
(Reporting by Melissa Fares in New York; Editing by Grant McCool)
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