Alberto Escobar, Leo Kowalski, Jing He and Chenjie Xu have been training since elementary school, but they never dreamed of playing in a Chess World Cup, even less before they turned twelve.. The four members of the El Altillo International School team will travel this Wednesday the more than 7,000 kilometers that separate Jerez de la Frontera from the city of Aktau, in Kazakhstan. There they will participate, from August 3 to 8, in the first School World Championship. The tournament is divided into two categories, sub 12 and sub 18, which bring together 71 teams from 50 countries.
The players from El Altillo began by winning the Cádiz de Colegios championship, in January. Then they went to the national tournament and finished runners-up in Spain, but the winners could not go to Kazakhstan and the people from Cádiz decided to take advantage of this historic opportunity. “It has been complete madness”, confirms his teacher, Daniel Escobar, FIDE master, president of the Andalusian Federation Trainers Committee and founder of the Ajeduca project together with his brother David.
The expedition was scheduled to leave at 12 in the morning this Wednesday and the arrival is scheduled for 4 in the morning on Thursday. “It is a laborious and expensive trip,” confirms Escobar, “but the International Federation helps us with most of it thanks to the management of Hispaniola. The rest has been paid for by La Andaluza, the Cadiz delegation, the Shahmat club, the school and the parents,” the monitor explained by phone hours before leaving for Kazakhstan.
“We are very excited. It will be the first time that they participate in a World Cup and, although the trip is incredible, we will do everything possible to do it as best as possible”, adds Escobar, cautious with the sporting options of his little chess players: “They stand out at the Cádiz level and Andalusian and they make a good team. It's hard to say if they have a chance, but looking at the list it looks like China and India are uncatchable, so I think the goal is to finish in the top 10 and hopefully medal.”
Will they become great teachers? “They look very good, but to be a GM you have to keep training a lot and have a great attitude. They are very young, 10 and 11 years old, and you never know, but I do see qualities in all four of them”, replies the coach.
Learn from a blind teacher
The Escobar story has its own interest. Daniel and his brother David learned to play with their father, Antonio Escobar, who is blind and was twice a medalist in the Spanish chess championships for the blind. “My father read the magazine 'Jaque' in Braille! We learned the letters of chess and that's how we watched the games,” reveals Daniel.
To continue the family tradition, the team that will participate in the World Cup includes his son Alberto. He and his friends are the only representatives of Spain in this new competition. Two of them are in sixth, one in fifth and one in fourth.
“I am proud that one of the main schools in our country with chess as a compulsory subject represents us in the First World School Team Championship”, says Javier Ochoa, president of the Spanish Federation.. This event is a great opportunity for the members of the El Altillo team to share this great sporting and cultural experience with children from all continents.”
Chess as a subject
Daniel Escobar is a firm supporter of chess as a subject in schools. The objective of Ajeduca, in fact, is “to make chess a curricular subject in all educational centers”, because it is an activity that “creates better people and therefore better societies”. “We have been at my school for more than 20 years and it works very well. If you have activities and a schedule adapted to the ages, like we do, it's totally possible,” he says..
An issue to be resolved is the lower female participation in tournaments. “In my school everyone gives chess in their weekly schedule, both the boys and the girls. When it comes to competing, it seems that fewer girls want to do it, but my impression is that the same thing happens in almost all sports,” explains the teacher, who insists that his subject has no negative side effects: “Nobody hates chess. If classes are made active for everyone and all students are treated according to their level and adapt, everyone learns and improves.
The grades are related to many things: attitude, exercises performed, test scores….
The advantages of educational chess are clear and they are the foundation of Ajeduca: “It improves behavior in the classroom, enhances memory and mental arithmetic, trains attention and concentration, teaches problem solving, encourages entrepreneurial spirit and increases the creativity and spatial vision”.