• Submitted by: admin
• Villaclara
• Sports
• 10 / 06 / 2007

A gigantic simultaneous chess game took place Thursday afternoon in Leoncio Vidal Park in Santa Clara to honor Ernesto "Che" Guevarra, one of the many activities commemorating the 40th anniversary of his death in Bolivia in 1967.

Cubas Grand and International Masters from Villa Clara and other provinces will play on 1,500 boards defended by high school and university students.Villa Clara GM Jesus Nogueiras told Granma that dedicating the chess extravaganza to Che is the best tribute a chess player can make, nothing that in Cuba there will always be Grand Masters thanks to the revolution that Che helped make a reality.

Nogueiras said that if chess is one of the most widely played sports in the country today, it is because of the support Fidel Castro and Che gave it from the onset of the revolution.

This is not the first chess tournament to be held in this central Cuban city. In the 1960s, simultaneous chess games were played on 600 boards in this same park.

Then, on April 29, 2004, one of the largest simultaneous games in history was played with 13,000 boards set up in front of the Ernesto Che Guevara Plaza, which included the participation of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro.

Source: By JOSE ANTONIO FULGUEIRAS, Granma