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Friday, September 2, 2011

Venezuelan chess party

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011

Hi everyone,

We love all those reports about chess coming from Latin America (actually from anywhere in the world!). Okay but this one's from Venezuela.

The magic of chess recently seized the city of Barquisimeto, Venezuela. Expectations for the First International Chess Festival Tribute to IM Wiston Boada fell short as no less than 800 participants from all 24 states and 7 countries joined. With a prize fund of 240.000 bolĂ­vares (38,550 Euro) it was a truly unique event for a Latin American country.

The Italian-Venezuelan Club facilities in Barquisimeto, Venezuela was the site of the First International Chess Festival Tribute to International Master Wiston Boada. Boada is a famous figure in the Venezuelan chess scene, boasting 25 years of career experience and having represented Venezuela in many international events. Barquisimeto is the capital city of the State of Lara located in west central Venezuela, halfway between Caracas and Maracaibo on the Turbio River.

The event, organised by the website ajedrezvinotinto.com (currently hacked and therefore, as a safety measure, redirected to www.radarvinotinto.com), intended to combine chess as a sport and as a science. On the Friday before the tournament, Spanish journalist Leontxo Garcia was invited to give a lecture. Titled ‘Travelling through the fascinating world of chess’, Garcia reviewed his experiences with chess and his relationship with such greats as Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov and Bobby Fischer, among others. Afterwards he answered all questions from the audience, and on Saturday morning he gave another lecture, titled 'Ten reasons to support chess'.


Leontxo Garcia giving a lecture about his adventures in chess.

On Saturday the event saw an unprecedented prize fund of 240.000 bolĂ­vares (38,550 Euro), 150,000 for the men’s section and 90,000 for the women’s section. The subscription was free, and done via internet. Eventually 800 participants from all 24 Venezuelan states and 7 countries joined, all of them receiving free drinks, lunch and a certificate.

Read the full report at www.chessvibes.com in English.

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal blog at
www.chessqueen.com

1 comment:

  1. Alexis Cochran, New ZealandSeptember 3, 2011 at 5:52 AM

    Cool. Latin America is right up there with chess. Have you seen two Cubans in second round?

    ReplyDelete

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