12th WUC Chess: The 1st round has begun

GUIMARAES – About eleven centuries after the introduction of chess by the Arabs in Europe, the city of Guimarães is the stage of the 12^th World University Chess Championship. Youngsters from eighteen different countries played on August 20th the first two rounds of the tournament. This sport is all about strategy. A game that demands an extreme concentration from the players. A concentration that could be felt during all day long in Pavilhão Desportivo of Minho’s University. The goal of this game is simple: to take your rivals king. It can be done in a lot of ways. And the game reaches the end when one of the kings doesn’t have any more possible moves that doesn’t result into a loss of the king’s player. This situation answers by the name of checkmate.

The first round began on the 20th of August at 9.30 am. During this time the Polish and the Mongolian team had the best results of the morning. Eight Polish players won their games and four of the Mongolian team did the same. A 100% accuracy for the Polish and a 67% accuracy for the Mongolians. The other countries at the tournament are: Angola, Argentina, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Finland, Germany, Japan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Paraguay, Portugal, Russian Federation and Switzerland.

Pairing in the Next Rounds?

In the first round, all the victories, ties and defeats will attribute the opponent of each player. To each victory is attributed 1 point, to each tie ½ point and to each defeat 0 points. In the next round, each game will be between players with the same number of points. It is possible that the number of participants is unpaired, in that case one of them will play against a player with approximately the same pointing. In the following rounds, the procedure is the same for each game, with more variety of points. 

Geoffrey Borg wants to promote Chess in Western Europe

Geoffrey Borg, CEO of FIDEIn an interview, Geoffrey Borg, Chief Executive Officer of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) enhanced the importance of working together with FISU in such important event. “The most positive aspect of this event for us is to build strong relationships, especially with FISU”, added FIDE’s CEO. When questioned about the difficulty of organizing a competition like the WUC Chess, Geoffrey Borg admitted that it is not easy because “there are a variety of processes and systems in place”. FIDE’s CEO also considers a difficult task “to control everyone’s work together with FISU and the local Organizing Committee”.

In what concerns to the importance of the University Championship, Geoffrey Borg considers that “university students are the reflex of education systems and that’s why FIDE has a lot of programs inside the universities”. For that reason, “in technical terms FIDE wants to promote the WUC Chess in association with FISU to grow the event bigger, better and with more participants”. The Chief Executive also admitted that Chess is a sport more popular in countries like Russia, China and Ukraine than in the West part of Europe and “that’s why promotion in media is essential”. In the next WUC Chess, FIDE and FISU will make some changes, in particular in what is related with the time of the games. In the end of the interview, Geoffrey Borg also praised the city of Guimarães for its beauty and culture.

(Source: OC)