For the first time, an Argentine chess player will have patronage that will accompany his professional career; the budding local star, the boy Faustino Oro, 10 years oldwas identified as the first beneficiary by a group of businessmen willing to provide him with financial aid to meet his training expenses in the high competition of this activity.
The novelty, unprecedented for South America in the more than four centuries since the arrival of the first games to this continent, was born as a consequence of a project named “On the way to the world chess elite”designed by the Argentine Chess Federation (FADA) through its Executive Director, Mario Petrucciwhich found in a group of businessmen (local and foreign), the necessary support for the assembly of a structure that will have the Uruguayan grandmaster Andrés Rodríguez Vila as General Coordinator of the plan.
The agreement between FADA, the group of businessmen and the parents of Faustino Oro (Alejandro and Romina) was formalized a few weeks ago and will make its debut with the participation of the Argentine boy in the XVII Continental Championship of the Americas, which will begin today until June 2 in Medellín (Colombia), and will distribute 23 thousand dollars in prizes. The number of registered for the test that will classify the four best for the chess World Cup cycle rose to 384 players, of which 60 of them belong to the categories of grandmasters and international masters. In addition to Faustino, the Argentine delegation will also include Ilan Schnaider, Leandro Krysa, Candela Francisco, María José Campos and Rene Garnier.
Regarding the creation of the project, the Executive Director of FADA, Mario Petrucci told Infobae: “There is a reality that shows us not only in chess, but also in other sports, what is the path that its athletes must follow to compete with the best; Advances in science and lately in Artificial Intelligence have modified training methods and systems. The best examples of this are seen today in India and China, or in the best player in the world, the Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, who perfected what the Soviet Union had done before. For this reason, at FADA we believed in putting together logistics that included several training schools, with different evaluation methods, to accompany the young promises on their ‘Course to the world chess elite’. The generous business support and the accompaniment of the State, from the National Sports Secretariat, made the implementation of the plan possible.”
-Will the State also accompany?
-Faced with the current social and economic situation that Argentina is experiencing, the fact that the Sports Secretariat provided us with ten scholarships (previously we had 24) and 14 coaches (previously, 16) was essential to sustain the project. Today hundreds of boys and girls from all the provinces of the country attend our schools.
-In recent years, a high number of boys and girls achieved great achievements for Argentine chess. Why is only Faustino the beneficiary?
-The election of Faustino was an exclusive decision of the sponsors; They pointed it out, either because he stands out from the rest or because of his media exposure. The reality is that they told us “how much it takes to accompany Faustino.”
-Who makes up this group of patrons?
-They are a group of low-profile businessmen who prefer to provide you with the necessary help for your growth in the game from anonymity.
-What kind of help will Faustino Oro receive?
-Patronage consists of covering the costs of tickets (for the child and a family member), hotels, travel expenses, purchase of materials and the cost of the coaches who will accompany you in this process. Even in some tournaments Faustino will also be accompanied by a coach
Although there are many cases in which the great stars of the chess world have only one permanent coach, the issue of Faustino Oro will be different. The child will be surrounded by a team of five coaches, and each one will have a specific but not decisive task, meaning that they will interact with each other in the set-up. The coaching staff is made up of Argentine teachers Jorge Rosito -your first teacher-, who will be in charge of preparing the openings with white pieces; Mario Villanuevain the defenses with black pieces; Thomas Sosawho will work in calculation areas; Leandro Perdomo, in plans and strategy; and the great Peruvian teacher, Jorge Coriin the study of endgames.
A training plan in South American chess for high competition has been an unknown subject; The exploits of its players were mostly the fruits of study and personal effort or the capacity of their talents. Financial support arose for specific tournaments or in the acquisition of tickets to participate in a competition. But the advance of computing not only exploded in the style of the game and the games, but also modified the ways of studying and preparing. Because it is one thing to have a teacher and take weekly classes and another to have a coach and work together six organized hours a day.
Today, to be an elite player, it is not enough to be very good or talented; it also requires a lot of work and training, and a group of professionals to assist you. The rise of the Indian Anand, 40 years ago, was perhaps the result of his personal effort but the reality of Indian chess today is a consequence of planning and work. At 13 years old, his chess players have a wealth of training background with which they increasingly accentuate and surpass their Latin American peers. For this reason, the great figures of the activity have teams made up of a coach, sports psychologists, nutritionists, physical trainer, collaborators and even specialists in the management of the computer tools so necessary for the study.
“You have to understand that there is no universal plan for High Performance chess, what exists are different ways of working and the most experienced ones came from the former USSR. There, Botvinnik and Dvoretzky were the great specialists in teaching. Many of his students have been hired by India for years and the results are visible,” he told him. to Infobaethe great Chilean teacher Ivan Morovic, who in his more than fifty-year career trained alongside Dvoretzky, Karpov, Korchnoi and Anand. And he added: “The task of being a coach is not for everyone, because not everyone has the conditions or knows how to teach. It requires experience, in addition to deeply knowing the secrets of the game and having your own training method. There are many factors that must be taken into account when choosing a coach.”
“A coach must be available to the chess player 24 hours a day, seven days a week, I say this from my own experience,” he assured Infobae, David Martinez, led by David Anton Guijarro, No. 1 in Spanish chess and the Olympic teams of that country. And he completed: “Not only must you be there to train him, but you must be attentive to any need that arises at the moment, in addition to knowing how to motivate him. That is why choosing him is very important, he must be someone with a great vocation and who wants to get involved in the project one hundred percent. Personally, I think that in Fausti’s case, I would also welcome the inclusion of a sports psychologist in the team, a trusted person to whom he dares to tell everything. He is still a child who from now on will have great support, but be careful with calling him the Messi of chess at 10, because it is normal for him to lose and drop in Elo and I would not want to see him in a bad light. He is experiencing everything very quickly, but I see him well supported by his family environment, and eager to learn.”
-They find the method that will be used in Argentina with Faustino Oro effective.
–Morovic: The method may be effective but the truth comes to light in practice. Each student is a different case and age is not a minor issue. Obviously if you are a chess fan and like to study 7 hours instead of 4 that is an advantage. For example, Bobby Fisher had a dysfunctional family, but at one point he had the support of the United States Federation and the advice of some players. In short, he was a fanatic who grew up in a very good environment and allowed him to get to where he did. Same, Kasparov. In my youth I met him at many tournaments, and when we finished he would take a plane and return to the USSR. What would have happened if that plane took him to another country that didn’t breathe chess? Would Kasparov have been No. 1 in chess?
–Martinez: “We must keep in mind that we are talking about a child, and that Fausti understands very well what is happening; He knows that he is a prodigy and that people are enchanted by him. I’m afraid that he won’t achieve on the board what he achieves playing in front of the screen; He must learn to live with this double reality and take the pressure off when playing an open tournament and waiting for him to reach the performance of an elite player. You don’t have to expect more from it, it’s best to enjoy the process. And if he does not become a grandmaster at 12 and achieves it at 13, there are no problems, because the important thing is that he continues training and that his family continues by his side because they trust him. I would advise you when putting together a plan of 12 tournaments a year, to play more or less 100 classic games (designed). The coach must be someone who speaks Spanish and who is trusted; Now he does not need Kramnik as a coach (his cost is $2,000 a week), that is for later, when he has more than 2,600 Elo points.”
Faustino Oro between dream and reality; a 10-year-old prodigy who fuels new dreams alongside chess. He has something to do with it.
