Bachar Kouatly from France and his Polish counterpart Radoslaw Jedynak have both travelled extensively playing chess, at last visiting both Guernsey and Jersey to play simultaneous exhibitions at the behest of Jon Hill, president of the Guernsey Chess Federation and Club.
‘It’s like a circle, and I play on each board move after move – this is called a simultaneous exhibition because simultaneously you play with 10, 12, 13 different people who are there,’ said Mr Kouatly.
‘They enjoy playing a grandmaster, and I enjoy playing guys who love chess. So it’s a reciprocity, it’s an exchange, and it’s a very nice social thing.’
Mr Kouatly has been playing chess now for decades, beginning as a schoolboy in 1973 – about 16 years before he became the first French grandmaster in history.
‘I got interested in chess when I was at school, and I loved the game very quickly. And, you see, I’m still there,’ he said.
‘When I started to play it was after the Fischer-Spassky match, which was very famous, and there was a lot of press because it was political. And so I was a young boy and I heard about it, and then I learned.’
It was love at first play for Mr Kouatly, who immediately developed a passion for the game – a passion which has persisted with him throughout his life.
‘When you have something coming from the deep past, like chess, where the rules have not evolved so much, and that is still so much real in our world with all the changes that happen, it means that it appeals to something deep in the human mind,’ he said, reflecting on the genesis of his love for the game.
‘And so this is something uniting, and the chess game also is very inclusive. Nobody is left just around the door, everybody can be there – men, women, girls, boys, disabled people. Everybody can play chess, and so this is also something very, very strong. You see, it is 1,500 years old, and still very modern.’
As well as loving the game for its mental stimulus and inclusivity, Mr Kouatly also said that the game had taken him around the world.
‘It’s brought me to over 100 countries,’ he said, ‘and I have a universal language at my disposal. Even if I don’t speak Japanese or Chinese, I can play a game of chess, and we will understand each other.’