Chess in Greece

[Jack Maguire]

This news item about chess in Greece (which has a population of less than 11 million) rather intrigues me.

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w...08/2014_542002

[Hans Jung]

Re: Chess in Greece

Jack, why are you intrigued?

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Chess in Greece

Jack, why are you intrigued?

First, I'm envious of their Panellinion cafe, Hans (:

Second, I didn't realize chess was quite that popular in Greece. On a per capita basis, they have roughly ten times the chess membership as the U.S.

[Alex Ferreira]

Re: Chess in Greece

Hi Jack,


If you're planning a vacation that involves chess, Greece is awesome! I've gone twice and would be very willing to go back at some point in the future. On the streets of Athens I actually felt backgammon was by far a more popular game than chess. One of the times in Greece I was the one doing the research in advance, and I found twelve (!) 9-round tournaments in the span of 9-10 weeks. One round a day with two rounds on day 2 seemed to be the standard format. There were definitely schedule conflicts and overlaps, and there didn't seem to be any real effort to have any one tournament include two weekends (like we do with Canadian Open). Not sure why or if it was deliberate. 5 of those 12 tournaments were in the mainland and the other 7 on islands, in the Summer of 2011. Maybe there isn't any federal government sponsorship but there is definitely a ton of support at municipal level. In 2010 I witnessed the small town of Paleochora (3K people, 5K in Summer) in Crete turn into a bit of a chess festival during the event, with several if not most of the small businesses contributing to the tournament in various ways. In 2011 in Rethymno (approx 40K people) there was a lot more going on, but there were several tournament posters on businesses' windows who sponsored the event as well. During the team-blitz outdoors event, one of busier shopping / restaurant streets close to the tournament hall was completely shut down for us to play chess. Both tournaments were held in municipal buildings, possibly the only ones large or suitable enough to organize 250-player events.

Thanks for posting the article, Jack. If I go to Athens anytime soon I'll make it a point to stop by.


Alex F.

[Hans Jung]

Re: Chess in Greece

And it is in most parts of Europe. Most Canadian chess players are not aware of that. Alex has filled you in a bit and hes right if all you can do is vacation time its still a great way to go and awesome to do. The cafe scene in Toronto had a little bit of that but certainly not recently. Montreal has Cafe Pi but its rare here in Canada.