The Chief Minister of Gibraltar Fabian Picardo found time, despite his busy Brexit schedule, to visit the Gibraltar International Chess Festival yesterday.

On arrival he was met by festival founder Brian Callaghan and was presented with a bunch of flowers for his wife Justine by nine year old chess player Chloe Kou who participated in the first ever Chess Seminar on the Rock this month.

Mr Picardo also met Dommaraju Gukesh the youngest Grandmaster in this year’s tournament and second youngest Grandmaster in history. The young 12 year old player from India exchanged a few moves on the chess board with the Chief Minister of Gibraltar after which Mr Picardo commented: “impressive, he beat me in three moves”.

Interviewed by festival director Stuart Conquest on the tournament’s web show he spoke of how fantastic it was to receive young players at the festival and that they felt “comfortable and at home in Gibaltar.”

He also recognised that for Gukesh this was his first time on the Rock and hoped he would see him again next year.

The Chief Minister of Gibraltar visited the main playing areas ahead of play in the Eighth Round and was shown round by Chief Arbiter Laurent Freyd. He was to make the first move on the top board where Vladislav Artemiev was playing against last year’s Gibraltar winner Levon Aronian.

Mr Picardo welcomed all the players to the tournament and took the opportunity to announce that a large scale communal chess board would be set up and become a feature in the new park outside the new Midtown Gibraltar development.

On the web show the Chief Minister spoke of the festival as a remarkable success.

Mr Picardo’s message was clear: “Gibraltar wants to continue to be the home of chess, and we want to grow this festival. We want it to appeal to all nationalities to all demographics within the chess world. We also want Gibraltar’s children to be tuned into chess.”

As Chief Minister of Gibraltar he was very keen that the schools chess programme should continue to grow in all schools in Gibraltar.

All round he had been particularly impressed by the many chess players who annually visited Gibraltar and took part in the festival.

Asked about the link between chess and the law in relation to his own legal background he recognised the many connections between chess and the law.

“In the same way as there are connections between the law and politics and chess and politics,” he commented.

“It is all about the intellectual fighting out a corner and defending an idea. In the same way as you defend a position and plot a course to achieve what in chess might be winning a match or turning a pawn into a queen, in politics or in law, it might be winning a case and achieving a recognition that your argument is the right one and therefore succeeding – step by step, sticking to the rules and getting to a destination.”

Pics:

Top left: The Chief Minister of Gibraltar Fabian Picardo meets Dommaraju Gukesh the youngest Grandmaster in this year’s tournament and second youngest Grandmaster in history. Pic: David Llada.

Middle: Tournament director Stuart Conquest and Chief Minister Fabian Picardo.

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