CAMAGÜEY.- Life has changed and many sports have come to a standstill. Physical and recreational activity is limited; and the pandemic threatens to affect the careers of many athletes in training; however, professors at the José Raúl Capablanca Provincial Chess Academy refuse to let their young students drift.

It is a group headed by the National Master (MN) Ernesto Hechavarría, and to which the MN Jorge Padrón and Eliecer Gracia also belong, and the FIDE Masters (MF) Pablo Guerra, Dexter Ocampo and Orlando Martín.

“The latter has been in charge of recording and editing the classes. We give him the topics and he develops them, we are already going through 42 gigabytes of classes of the different categories that the Talent School of the main municipality has ”, commented Hechavarría.

“When students have access to the Internet, we pass on content and check their learning through a WhatsApp group, but we bring the materials to others in a memory, always complying with the health protocol. Parents, who have become practically activists, have supported this, especially Román Baso, who is a computer engineer ”, added the professor.

To check the effectiveness of the new system, teachers communicate with their pupils and evaluate them through technical tests and pedagogical tests. Relatives have found in this method a way to keep their little ones active at a time when going outside to play with friends is not an option.

However, for the coaches of the science game it means more, since they even manage to insert several students in international online competitions, anchored in the lichess application, the player-students have measured knowledge and talent with their colleagues from all over the world under specialized monitoring.

In this way, the six-year-old girl Alisbel Hilarión obtained second place in a European tournament, and Claudia Hernández, eight, marches in seventh place in the Ibero-American cumulative sub-9.

Likewise, Samira Castro, current U-10 national champion, and Felipe Herrera, bronze in that same category, have been on virtual podiums; while Leduard González and Ineymig Hernández have reigned among schoolchildren and youth, respectively.

Thanks to the inventiveness and perseverance of this group of educators, the development of our best chess players will not be cut short by COVID-19, an example that coaches from other disciplines must follow in the current context. Education and distance work are here to stay, and the talents of the science game in Camagüey have already assumed it.

Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez