On the 9th of June Vladimir Kramnik gave a simul against businessmen, politicians and statesmen of Novgorod. The level of proficiency of chess-players playing against Kramnik turned out to be higher than of those playing against Veselin Topalov. Among them there were four candidates of sport master and eight first class players. However, young and adult amateurs of chess joined them to play on 20 boards. The simul continued for three hours and when it was over Vladimir Kramnik said : « I like the persistence of Novgorodian chess-players». The final result is 17,5/2,5 to Russian grand chess-master. The candidate master of sport , the participant of open-tournament`97 Novgorodian Jaroslav Iljinsky won a prize for being the only victor amongst his opponents. The candidate master of sport, Sergey Kafanov, and first class players Vladimir Nazarenko and Gely Shepelkevich attained draws.