Chess in the museum

 

In Estonia there are a lot of museums, one of the biggest number per capita in the World. The Tartu Sport museum is one of the biggest in Baltic states. The idea to make some chess event in the museum was a good plan and the predecessor event took place in January in the ERM.  This time the main organizer was Peep Pedmanson. He’s two sons both play chess and he tries to promote chess wherever possible. The event took place at the end of October.

The simultaneous exhibition started early at 3.pm and because of that most of the participants were children. Still we had nearly 20 chess enthusiasts. Before the simul I made a small introduction. Stating the benefits of chess for children and I appreciated the effort of Mr. Pedmanson and the museum staff. I had the opportunity to sign on the museum wall where other prominent Estonian former sport stars already had their signature.

The simul went smoothly. I had a bad position against Estonian Olympic team member Hendrik Haavamäe, but when he made an illegal move I forced him to accept my draw offer. The regulations are not clear in this case. Most of the time it is automatic loss for the player, but of course the friendly simul is not about winning or losing. In other games I did not have any problems and at the end I made one more draw with Sarabella Normano who was a member of Finnish Olympic team in the recent Chess Olympiad in Batumi. She actually lives in Tartu and she already played against me in January simul as well.

I hope that the idea to promote chess via museums is a vital idea and we expect to continue this tradition.

Jaan Ehlvest