Passion for chess
What a joy to see that, in our world there are still children who want to stimulate their minds in front of a chess board, engaging in that ancient game which may have come to light in India in the 6th century BC, and which is now a subject in 13 of the island’s schools, as part of the pilot programme El ajedrez en la escuela (Chess in the School).
text Juan Ignacio Orúe
photography Íñigo Vega
Shatranj, shatranji, chaturanga… ajedrez – the Spanish word for chess. According to historians, it is possible that a similar version to chess as we know it today began to be played in India nearly three thousand years ago, and that from there it spread to China, Russia, Persia and Europe. What is certain is that it reached Spain in the 15th century, incorporating the queen as a piece in homage to the catholic monarch Queen Isabella.
The figure of 600 federation members in Mallorca does not seem like a very high number. Or 800, if we widen the scope to the Balearic Islands, with the Menorcan Paco Vallejo, who holds the title of Grandmaster, as an international name.
The same is true of Mónica Calzetta Ruiz, Grandmaster and seven times champion of Spain. The daughter of an Italian and a Spaniard, her love of chess blossomed at age 11, when it occurred to her school maths teacher that the game could help his pupils reason, solve problems and stay calm when faced with the challenges of additions and subtractions.
It was love at first sight. Before Mónica’s eyes, the two-tone chequered board, the handful of irregular pieces with different shapes arranged on top of it, that whole world which simulates a war up to the annihilation of the adversary, kindled an unstoppable fascination inside of her, which evolved until becoming the centre of her life, as her pupils at the Club Mallorca Isolani, in Palma, well know.
As from last year, chess has been a teaching tool in 13 schools in the Balearic Islands, which are gradually being joined by others within the innovative educational pilot programme known as El ajedrez en la escuela, or ‘Chess in the School.’
“Chess promotes many qualities: memory, concentration, decision-making; it affects behaviour because there are rules that have to be followed... It facilitates numerous educational questions in an entertaining way. That is to say, when children play chess during school time they see it as a game, not an academic subject. And there are advantages to that,” says Carles Vich, president of the Balearic Chess Federation.
“I have been teaching for thirty years,” says Mónica. “I follow my pupils’ careers and most of them have incredible lives. One of them works for NASA, others are engineers or doctors. Chess has helped them develop a lot. They find everything easier. Chess helps you to not give up.”
It is curious to see how the tendency is changing today. Years ago it was parents who taught their children to play, but now it is the other way around: it is the children who force their parents to take up chess as a hobby. And they even participate in tournaments together, where 7-year-old children can play with adults of 80. “Sharing that passion for chess strengthens their bonds in an extraordinary way. I even know children who teach their grandparents to play, and I think that’s wonderful,” says Mónica.
