Dario Vergara triumphs in the Matto Affogato
On Saturday 27 August the first chess diving tournament in Italy, entitled "Matto affogato", took place in Modena at the Cantoni agriturismo.
The competition, organised by the San Damaso chess group together with the historic club 64 of Modena, saw nine promising children aged 7 to 13 compete on four boards with weighted pieces in a series of underwater games where time was measured only by their own lungs. The tournament was won with a perfect score by the young Dario Vergara, thus demonstrating remarkable chess skills and great ease in the water. The podium was completed by Francesco Gazzotti and Anastasia Sfera. The day went off impeccably, full of emotion and of the desire to spend time together united by a single passion which, beyond the interest of the game in itself, brought and taught the children the very great values that chess holds. We hope this event can bring interest to this discipline and, above all, we hope, as Pablo Picasso maintained, that the most sceptical do not judge wrong what they do not know, but may take this as an opportunity to understand it.