British Chess Grandmaster Plays Against 20 Belizeans Simultaneously
It’s a highly sophisticated board game that is popular across the world. Today, the British High Commissioner hosted twenty Belizean chess players and British chess Grandmaster, Nigel Short, who took them on simultaneously. It happened this evening at the British High Commissioner’s residence in Belmopan and News Five’s Marion Ali was there and filed this report.
Marion Ali, Reporting
You’ve probably tried your hand at a game of chess and liked it, particularly if you won. But that wasn’t the feeling these twenty Belizean chess players had, having gotten a trashing from British Chess Grandmaster, Nigel Short. He took on all twenty of them today and up until the time that we left the match, was winning them all. The Belize Chess Federation’s Vice President, Joshua Baeza has been playing chess since 2010 and teaches the game to younger players, but today he was no match for Nigel Short.
Joshua Baeza
Joshua Baeza, Vice President, Belize Chess Federation
“I can’t say it went bad. I mean it started; I had fun. The most important things is that I had fun. I enjoyed myself. Yeah, it went bad. I lost. I won’t say that I won, but I enjoyed the game and it was a, it was a tough match. I mean, he’s a grand master. Basically he has a rating of over 2,000, so I’m nowhere near that. So it was pretty much decided already who’s going to win.”
Reporter
“Was it harder than you expected though?”
Joshua Baeza
“Not necessarily. No. I kind of had expected, more or less how difficult the game could have been. So I had already prepared myself, but unfortunately I made a mistake. He caught up on it and he capitalized on it, and therefore, I’m one of the first ones to lose among the executives.”
An event like today’s is nothing strange in other parts of the world. The British High Commissioner to Belize, Nicole Davidson said she was ecstatic when Nigel Short contacted her office with the proposal.
Nicole Davidson
Nicole Davidson, British High Commissioner to Belize
“I was familiar with him cause he was very famous in the UK when I was growing up and he’s got this role with the International Chess Federation. He emailed me a couple of months ago and said that he was coming to Belize and would I be interested in helping him out in some way. So I said, sure, use the space here. And that’s how it came about working with the Belize Chess Federation to organize today’s match.”
Today’s players ranged in ages from seven to thirties. Rasheed Blades was the youngest. The federation’s media specialist, Luis Mendez Jr., says that it is players like Blades who participate in tournaments such as these that the Belize Chess Federation seek out to take part in major events.
Luis Mendez, Jr.
Luis Mendez, Jr., Media Specialist, Belize Chess Federation
“I really wanted to win the grand, but all in all, we did a selection tournament before this and the guy from Mexico, Sebastian Fuentes won first place, and I was the first runner up, as a Belizean player. So we held it at the George Price Centre for Peace and Development in Belmopan. And now we’re here in Belmopan as well at the British High Commission, uh, playing grand Master, Nigel Short. So to put it into perspective, we had the top 15 players from that tournament. And we had five females and also we had some other special invited guests that were not part of the selection tournament, right?”
Joshua Baeza says that chess enthusiasts can follow the Belize Chess Federation’s Facebook page for information on the latest chess events. Marion Ali for News Five.
