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Sir Joe Bossano Visits The Chess Festival

Sir Joe Bossano visited the Gibraltar International Chess Festival on day four of the Gibraltar Masters. Making the opening move at the start of play between Ivan Cheparinov from Georgia and Maksim Chigaev from Russia, he said Gibraltar was very lucky and proud to host the festival and how it had grown in strength annually over the past 18 years.

“It is good for us to be the host and for people on the other side of the world to know that we are here and the commitment we have to this chess tournament,” he added.

Sir Joe believes chess is an exceptional thing that humans do and one that continues to test the one thing that distinguishes us as a life form.

“This is something we need to encourage our young people to do so that increasingly we do better,” he added.

Interviewed on the Festival’s webscast by Fiona Steil-Antoni, Sir Joe told the presenter that chess was very important for mankind because it was a particular activity which engaged the brain.  Although not a player, Sir Joe recognised chess was in a class of its own. Gibraltar, he said, was supporting it financially because of the exposure the Rock gets with so many chess players attending the tournament from all over the world.

Top pic: Festival organiser Brian Callaghan, festival Chief Arbiter Laurent Freyd and Gibraltar’s Minister for Economic Development Sir Joe Bossano. PIC: John Saunders.

Bottom pic: Sir Joe Bossano makes the first move for Ivan Cheparinov from Georgia playing in the top boards against Maksim Chigaev from Russia. PIC: John Saunders.