As usual the children were happy to be here and participated actively in all the activities and exercises.
Once again, the boys beat the girls in the team match.
We then paired them by level for some real games, except 6 of them that I thought had still not assimilated every figure's movement. I don't want to make them play without knowing this absolutely perfectly, because then, the games would not make any sense.
Ahmed was here today again, so we were co-animating the class, which is much better when you have level differences. He will be the one keeping on with the class when I am gone, 4 hours per week. The idea is to create a chess club and a team which will then compete in tournaments.
Ahmed was explaining me he learnt how to play chess by himself when he was a teenager. He once saw two people playing and he caught the chess virus.There was not any centre like Shiraa in the past, and no tournament either to develop his skills. It was also (and still is) very difficult to get out of the country and compete with the rest of the world. Competition is important for the improvement though.
It reminded me how lucky I was to be travelling France and Europe for chess competitions at a very young age.
At the end of the class, I thanked all the children for their great participation and positive attitude.
I gave one chess medal to the best two boys and one for the best girl, they were really proud !
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