Chess game: Corsica trains champions

Under the Corsican sun, chess has found a land of predilection and they have a champion in all categories: Marc’Andria maurizzi. A year ago, the schoolboy obtained the Grail, that of Grand Master international, becoming at 14 years and five days the youngest Frenchman to obtain this Grail. Like all great chess champions, physical effort is not to be outdone. “He is a Grandmaster yes, but he is a child above all. So it allows him to relax his brain and be better able to endure long games of chess, where sometimes you stay for 6-8 hours in front of an opponent”says his coach.

Every day, after school, in a chess club, a hundred children like to come and compete around a chessboard. “He goes faster than the others and he is really surprising”says a player. In Corsica, for 25 years, chess has been a compulsory subject, like French or mathematics. The game has educational virtues: practice logic and concentration. 50,000 children have benefited from lessons over the past 25 years. Corsica has a Grand Master international, thirteen French champions and two European champions.