The French Chess Federation liaised with the Fondation de France to fights the coronavirus and organized 24-hour chess marathon in cooperation with Lichess, Blitzstream, Europe-Echecs, Chess24, Variantes, and Apprendre-les-Echecs. The event, held on May 2, was broadcasted by the most popular streamers in the country (including Kévin Bordi, FM Sylvain Ravot, and John Cappon) to mobilize the French-speaking chess community towards making online donations to the “Tous unis contre le virus” (all units against the virus) campaign run by the Fondation de France.
The time control was blitz (5+2), and almost 3,000 players (GMs Anthonys Wirig, Tigran Gharamian, Rémi Trouville among others) joined this massive tournament playing close to 60,000 games. The winner, a French grandmaster Sébastien Feller played 183 games!
Romain Bilquez, a nurse in the intensive care in a Covid-19 unit, finished second in the event. A chess enthusiast, member of the Chartres club, and a very young father, he frequently plays the French chess league after a night of work in his hospital. During the marathon, he only had a one-hour break: baby bottle time! He won online chess lessons, but he thinks about offering this prize to a friend. His story was covered in the French press: https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/centre-val-de-loire/eure-et-loir/chartres/chartres-infirmier-reanimation-jeune-papa-il-joue-24-heures-dormir-tournoi-echecs-caritatif-1825172.html
You can check out the final standings (nicknames only) here: https://lichess.org/tournament/yDTJ461h
The chess community raised almost €10,000 during this charity marathon, showing great generosity in this difficult context. It is still possible to make a donation before May the 10th on https://dons.fondationdefrance.org/mettonslevirusechecetmat/~mon-don
Many prominent figures took part in this marathon. The twelfth World Champion Anatoly Karpov played a few games during this event under a nickname Sokolov_Kirill-10. FIDE Deputy President and the President of French Federation GM Bachar Kouatly was in action for almost 4 hours, commenting his games on the live stream. FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich made a donation to this initiative. This is a great symbol of the “gens una sumus” motto, proving that chess players form a worldwide community, joining efforts for great causes.
One hundred prizes – chess books, online lectures, premium subscription for chess websites – have been awarded during the event. The first prize is an all-inclusive invitation for Rencontres Internationales des Échecs Francophones (international meeting of French-speaking players) organized by the Association Internationale des Echecs Francophone, which will be held in Djerba from December 26 to January 4.
