Quotes of interbank currency market of Ukraine (UAH for 1 PLN, in 01.06.2024-30.06.2024)
Open4Business.com.ua
The State Enterprise Guaranteed Buyer (Guaranteed Buyer) has announced the first auction in Ukraine for the distribution of the green generation support quota.
According to the state enterprise, 11 MW of solar power generation capacity is up for auction, with a starting price of 9 euro cents/kWh.
Applications are accepted until October 30.
The auction itself will be held on October 31 at 12:55 in the state electronic trading system Prozorro.Sale.
The auction will be held with a decreasing price.
According to the auction requirements, the solar power plant must be located on the left bank of the Dnipro River, except for the areas of military operations.
To participate in the auction, a bank guarantee in favor of Guaranteed Buyer in the amount of EUR 5/kW of the power plant’s capacity or its queue must be provided. To sign the contract, the winner of the auction must provide Guaranteed Buyer with a bank guarantee in the amount of EUR 15/kW of capacity, under which the winner is entitled to support based on the results of the auction. The remuneration of the operator of the authorized electronic platform is EUR 0.8/kW.
“The government has created all the conditions for holding the most transparent auctions for the distribution of state support for renewable energy producers. This is another step towards European integration and the implementation of best practices in supporting green energy in Ukraine,” Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko commented on the auction announcement, as quoted in the ministry’s website on Friday.
As reported, the Cabinet of Ministers, by its resolution of August 13, set an additional quota for support for business entities that produce electricity from alternative energy sources in the amount of 110 MW for 2024, of which wind farms – 88 MW, and solar power plants and other types of renewable energy sources (biomass, biogas, small hydropower plants) – 11 MW each.
The SPPs must be located on the left bank of the Dnipro River, and the auction for them will be held in October; there are no territorial restrictions for wind farms and other types, and the auctions are scheduled for November.
The contract with the State Enterprise Guaranteed Buyer for the provision of services under the market premium mechanism with the winner of the auction will be valid for 12 years.
For solar and wind power plants, the maximum selling price for electricity is 9 euro cents/kWh. For other types of alternative energy sources – 12 euro cents/kWh.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has begun a meeting with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in New York, Voice of America reports.
Zelenskyy is on a visit to the United States, where he has already met with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
The European Union’s Creative Europe program will continue to support Ukraine’s culture and creative industries sector in 2025, the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications reports.
“Ukrainian audiovisual projects have the opportunity to take full part in the competitions of the Media subprogram, which aims to support the European film and audiovisual industries and to develop, distribute and promote European works, taking into account the modern digital environment,” the ministry said in a statement.
It is noted that six such competitions have been announced, namely: European co-development; video game and immersive content development; television and online content; talent and skills development; 360° media; innovative tools and business models.
According to the announcement, grant applications can be submitted from October 1, 2024.
“The total amount of funding for projects that will receive grants under the above competitions is EUR 81.5 million. The total budget of the EU’s Creative Europe program in accordance with the Annual Work Program 2025 is EUR 340 million,” the agency added.
France and Canada have agreed to strengthen cooperation in the field of military materiel for Ukraine and in the field of training within the framework of the Defense Contact Group (Ramstein), in particular, they will continue to deepen strategic cooperation in the field of cyber defense in support of Ukraine, according to a declaration agreed upon during a meeting in Ottawa on September 26 by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron.
“We are committed to working with Ukraine and our partners to enable Ukraine to defend its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity in the face of Russian aggression, both in traditional domains and in cyberspace, including by supporting the strengthening of Ukraine’s civilian cybersecurity capacity through the Tallinn Mechanism. More broadly, we will continue to discuss topics of mutual interest that were discussed during the Paris Conference on February 26, 2024,” the document, published on the Canadian government’s website, reads.
The declaration states that Canada and France have already trained tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers as part of Operation UNIFIER for Canada and the EU Military Assistance Mission in Support of Ukraine (EUMAM Ukraine) for France. The armed forces of the two countries also continued to cooperate in training Ukrainian fighter pilots.
India won the Open and Women’s Olympiads in Budapest, while for the first time in history no European team reached the podium in either event
India’s domination of the 188-team Budapest Olympiad was complete. Their winning Open score of 21/22 was a record, they finished four points clear of the chasing pack, while their four individual golds included a 3000+ rating performance by Gukesh Dommaraju, 18, who challenges for the world crown in November.
It was a seminal moment in chess history, comparable to the 1945 USA v USSR radio match when the Americans, quadruple Olympiad gold winners in the 1930s, were crushed 15.5-4.5 to launch 45 years of Soviet supremacy, interrupted only by Bobby Fischer.
India’s superiority was reminiscent of the legendary USSR teams of the 1950s and 1960s, which were packed with world champions and challengers and rarely lost a game, let alone a match. In Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi, 21, India have what could prove to be the Mikhail Botvinnik and Vasily Smyslov or Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov of the 2020s and 2030s.
For the first time in any Olympiad, no European team reached the podium in either the Open or the Women’s event, although fifth to 23rd places in the Open were all taken by European squads.
Yagiz Erdogmus v Nikita Meshkovs, Turkey v Latvia, Budapest Olympiad 2024. White to move and win.
Gukesh and Erigaisi, who won the boards one and three golds, scored at a pace that even Magnus Carlsen was unable to match. The Norwegian’s ambition of eliminating one of the few gaps in his career record remains unfulfilled, as he had to settle for top board bronze.
Gukesh is now up to No 5 in the world rankings, while Erigaisi has jumped to No 3. Both are poised to pass the 2800 rating landmark as soon as this weekend, when they are scheduled to play for Düsseldorf in the opening two rounds of the German Bundesliga. Games are due to start at 1pm BST on Saturday and 10am on Sunday.
On Wednesday, India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, received the two Indian teams at his residence to congratulate them on their achievement, while Gukesh’s win against China’s Wei Yi has been awarded the Olympiad Best Game prize.
If Gukesh fails to reach 2800 this weekend, he will surely do so during his $2.6m world championship match against China’s Ding Liren, which opens in Singapore on 25 November. Ding will start the 14-game series winless in classical chess since 27 January, when he defeated Max Warmerdam in round 12 of Wijk aan Zee. The latest odds are Gukesh 2/5, Ding 9/5, and the contrast is obvious and acute with 2018, when Ding won Olympiad team and individual gold for China.
If Gukesh and Erigaisi can continue their rating advance deep into the 2800s, then Carlsen’s current No 1 mark of 2830 could become a realistic target in a year or two, despite rating deflation.
Vishy Anand, world champion from 2007 to 2013, was the inspiration for India’s success. Anand mentored several of the players, and was on hand to witness the decisive moments. The result was redemption for the 2022 Olympiad at Chennai, when on home ground India faltered in the final rounds and were passed by Uzbekistan. This time Uzbekistan settled for bronze behind India and the United States, still an excellent result for its young team and its world No 6, Nodirbek Abdusattorov.
For the US, who lost to the winners and also had a costly defeat against Ukraine, the lingering unanswered question is whether they could have won gold if Hikaru Nakamura had chosen to compete in Budapest instead of streaming his commentaries. Nakamura identified Wesley So as a weak link, but the former Filipino, after a shaky start, scored the win against China which ensured silver medals for the US.
Final leading Olympiad scores were India 21/22 match points, United States 17, Uzbekistan 17. China, Serbia and Armenia also totalled 17 points, but had worse tiebreaks.
England, seeded eighth, ended up 20th on 15/22. The eight-time British champion Michael Adams, now aged 51, was the highest scorer with an unbeaten 6/9, while the former Russian Nikita Vitiugov on top board was restricted to a 50% score in which his two wins were scored against weaker opposition in the first and last rounds.
England’s team is ageing, and although the youngest ever English grandmaster, Shreyas Royal, 15, can expect a callup for the next Olympiad at Tashkent 2026, that will only solve the problem on one board. There are many other promising English juniors, but none of them appear to have the potential to become 2500s in the next two years. A special incentive may be needed, similar to Jim Slater’s 1973 offer of substantial rewards for new British grandmasters.
India won the Women’s Olympiad with 18/22. Kazakhstan, also with 18 but an inferior tiebreak, took silver and the United States won bronze on 17. Carissa Yip, 21, and Alice Lee, 14, both won board medals for the US, and that could well be a benefit of the Cairns Chess Queens award of $100,000 each for the first five US female players who becomes a grandmaster at Open level in the next five years. Irina Krush, the longtime US No 1, has already received it.
Jovanka Houska was England’s best scorer on 8/10, while Lan Yao and Harriet Hunt also bettered 64%. The bottom boards underperformed, and there was a tendency for defeats to come in pairs, but further experienced players and rising talents will be available in 2026 to confirm the ongoing improvement in English women’s chess.
The chess elite will come to London next month when the franchise-based six-team Tech Mahindra Global League is played at Friends House, Euston, from 3-12 October. World champions Carlsen and Anand, the world No 2, Nakamura, and the double world title challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi will all lead teams. The Olympiad hero, Erigaisi, is also competing.
The time limit is rapid chess, 20 minutes per player per game, with the added bonus for spectators that there is no per-move increment, implying some exciting time scrambles. Daily and season tickets are available from the Chess and Bridge shop in Baker Street, or online.
3939: 1 R7e6! so that if fxe6 2 Ne7+ and 3 Qxg6+ wins. The game ended 1…Qxe6 2 Rxe6 fxe6 3 Nxd6 Rxd6 4 Qg6+ Kf8 5 Qf6+ Kg8 6 f5 hxg3 7 Qg6+ Kf8 8 fxe6 1-0. At Budapest, Erdogmus became the first player ever to reach a 2600 rating at age 13.
