The Bolesławiec Chess Celebration took place on Saturday. It began with the International Chess Meeting. Sixty-seven competitors from Česká Lípa, Bolesławiec, Legnica, Wrocław, Bogatynia and Lwówek Śląski took part. The competitors competed in four age categories. Kacper Grela won among children under the age of 9. In the 10–13 age category, Denisa Jinova and Łukasz Kościuk won. In the 14–18 age category, Natalia Kołczyn and Marek Piguła took first place. Among competitors over the age of 19, Barbara Stafińska and Sławomir Gaff won.
After the meeting’s competition, it was time for a chess match between the partner cities. The match took place in front of the Bolesławiec Town Hall. Representing Bolesławiec was Marcin Zimmerman, while Česká Lípa was represented by Jan Vrana. An attraction for the audience was the fact that the Polish-Czech match was also acted out by young people dressed as chess pieces (“living chess”). The match ended with a Czech victory because our competitor exceeded the permitted time limit for making a move.
The final event of Saturday’s chess celebration was a simultaneous exhibition, in which one player competes against many opponents. Twenty-two competitors faced chess master Stanisław Zawadzki. The master won 20 times. He lost to one of the meeting’s winners, Bolesławiec resident Sławomir Graff, and drew with Paweł Ignatowicz.
The Bolesławiec Chess Celebration was organized by the Municipality of Bolesławiec and the Municipal Sports and Recreation Centre, in cooperation with the Chess Section of Bolesławiecki Klub Sportowy and the Chess Club of the Bolesławiec Cultural Centre. The event was co-financed by European Union funds under the Interreg IIIa Poland-Czech Republic programme.