Borys Ivanovich Khramtsov is a client of the Khmelnytskyi Charitable Foundation “Hesed Besht”, a visitor to cultural and mass events of the Community Center “Thiya”. At almost seventy, he often becomes a participant, and almost always, the winner, of difficult and tense battles that require attention, concentration and logic. On January 29-31, the man won first place in the regional championship, defeating many titled “warriors”. Borys Ivanovich is “armed” with checkers, and the field for the duel is a black and white board with 64 or 100 squares.
The future champion was born in Riga, spent his childhood and youth in Khmelnytskyi. His father showed him the basics of chess, who kindly teased his son, amusing himself with games with the little one. When Bory was twelve years old, however, his father had already stopped teasing, because he could no longer beat his son. Somewhere in 1964, Boris came across B. Mirotin's book "Combination and Traps in Russian Checkers", which he learned, literally, by heart. He also had to learn a lot from various periodicals or in libraries.
While studying, the young man participated in various competitions and for various teams, such as "Avangard", "Spartak" and "Burevisnik". He even had to be a mercenary from other departmental teams, which was not desirable in the USSR. In such cases, you could play as much as you wanted, but you couldn't win, and you had to openly lose the competition to the weaker ones so as not to give yourself away.
"You can calculate any game many moves ahead," says Boris Ivanovich. "Standard You can only move forward, attack - forward and backward, and there are mandatory moves. Thus, the battle ends in approximately 30 moves, and all of them can be planned. My tactics: plan and implement 4-5 moves, and then act on the situation, evaluate the opponent and his tactics. Although you can always lose, regardless of the strategy." The most important "trap" in checkers, according to him, is the rule "Touched - move", which often causes mistakes.
Playing chess requires constant training. Therefore, two weeks before serious competitions, Boris Ivanovich takes up the theory of the game. Regular visits to the city's Chess Club help with this. It also happens that the man comes to some schools in the city, where he explains the intricacies of the game to children. He does not purposefully engage in any training with anyone, although he says that in recent years there have been more talented young people playing checkers. However, by "youth" Boris Ivanovich understands people 15-30 years younger than himself.
It is impossible to list all the awards that the man won during his hobby. Among the latest are 2nd place in the 2015 regional championship in 100-square chess (which is more difficult than 64-square chess - author's note), victories in Victory Day tournaments and other events. The January victory in the regional championship was not easy, as eminent and talented champions gathered, but the skill did not fail. "Victory significantly strengthens self-confidence and one's abilities, which is very important at my age," Borys Ivanovich answers when asked about the role of games in his life. "It's nice that a younger generation is growing up, which is also interested in checkers and shows promise."
