Someone once said that a picture is worth a thousand words. The photographs in this column are compelling, and focuses on the human dimension in chess. During its 1,500 history, the ancient pastime has survived plunderers, wars, famines, disease and everything that is negative.
Chess has survived. The pictures signal the future of the game.
Fixing the Knight: The white pieces are in place, except the Knight, as the photo demonstrates. The picture was taken in Cambodia where students of a select school in a remote province are learning the Western form of chess, thanks to French former child chess star, Karelle Bolon. Bolon has adopted a simple and effective way of training children to play chess – you train the schoolteacher, and the teacher will in turn teach the young ones.A junior chess club at the Central Library in Cape Town, South AfricaThe most popular chess game in Cambodia is the Ouk Chatrang , a board game similar to chess in a way, but still with some notable differences. Neighbouring countries such as Thailand and Vietnam participate in the Chess Olympiads, but Cambodia has never developed the game of chess to oppose her neighbours. Bolon has noted that developing chess activity in Cambodia will allow the country to get official status from FIDE and to participate in tournaments around the world. In the photo, students pay rapt attention to one of their own as she explains how the pawn moves.Battle of the Generations! Women’s chess is booming in India. Chess was introduced to a wide cross-section of primary and secondary schools there. Since that time, the number of grandmasters, women grandmasters and other titled players has increased significantly. India captured the bronze medal at the 2014 Tromso Chess Olympiad beating Russia into fourth place, and won the gold medal on the fifth board in the Women’s section of the Olympiad. This photo was taken at the 2014 National Women Challengers tournament last month and shows a battle of the generations.
Someone once said that a picture is worth a thousand words. The photographs in this column are compelling, and focuses on the human dimension in chess. During its 1,500 history, the ancient pastime has survived plunderers, wars, famines, disease and everything that is negative.
