Closing EXPOCHESS 2020

The fifth ExpoChess International Drawing Contest, under the slogan ‘Chess and the positive environmental values ​​of your natural environment’ held its closing festival on Saturday, November 28, 2020.

The first act was the confrontation between teams in the ExpoChess 2020 final tournament, held online by the Lichess platform. This game is organized by the ExpoChess association together with the University of La Punta (San Luis, Argentina) in which ten teams from five countries participated.

The competition was won by two clubs from Navarra and the Basque Country, Oberena sub-18 and CA Martintxo Xake Taldea.

The organization, through David Sierra, addressed the theme of the contest ("Chess and the positive environmental values ​​of your natural environment") and the difficulties experienced in this edition marked by the global pandemic.

In fact, this year "events or face-to-face tournaments" could not be held, although it had the collaboration of the University of La Punta (San Luis, Argentina) which carries out different initiatives that bring the science game closer to the entire population, with activities such as Initial School Chess, the Talent School, Social Chess, Intercollegiate Games, open tournaments and Digital Chess.

Subsequently, the Congress was held, which was entirely digital and entitled ‘Chess and the natural environment’, in which the journalist from El País Leontxo García participated, who addressed ‘Chess for a sustainable world’; Chilean chess player and teacher Beatriz Marinello with "Connection of Chess and the Environment"; the great Argentine teacher Claudia Amura with ‘Multicultural Exchange’; the Chilean singer Juga Di Prima with ‘Chess: back to basics’ and finally Mikel Garate, who spoke about ‘The awareness of acts’.

They all left thoughtful reflections on chess and the environment, also linking it to the situation the world is going through with the coronavirus and which has served, precisely, as a spur to increase digital tournaments and the exponential increase in the number of players and fans of the noble game.

Garate, together with Joseán Morselín, both professors of Fine Arts at the Public University of the Basque Country, were part of the jury of the V ExpoChess International Drawing Contest, which praised the works presented and whose list of winners closed the event.

In the 6-9 year-old category, the winners were: The first for the one entitled "Our world on a board" by Lautaro Humerez from Argentina; second, ‘Chess under the mango tree’ by Gabriela Sofía Culpa from Venezuela and third, ‘The love of nature’ by Angélica Regina Ramírez from Mexico.

In the category of ten to fourteen years, the winner was ‘Clash of worlds’ by Aisha Tovar from Venezuela; the second was for Paraguay and the third for the Capracotta primary school, in Italy.

In the last category for those over fourteen years of age, the winner under the title ‘Checkmate pollution’ was Ashy Garcilazo Puertas from Peru; the second, "Vida" by Abril Godoy from San Luis, Argentina and the third, "Defense of nature" by Abigail Albornoz, from the province of Catamarca, Argentina.

The next edition of the Contest is to be kept with the same theme, Chess and the Environment.

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