It’s great that every year people from all over the world come to visit the Moscow Open, RSSU Cup. They come to take part, enjoy the event, get acquainted with the Russian chess culture and receive experience that organizers and participants of the festival are always ready to share with foreign guests. Chess organizer from Italy Ludwig Rettore hasn’t missed the Moscow Open for seven consecutive years. In the course of these years he managed to learn Russian quite good.
- Good afternoon, Ludwig. Tell us about yourself.
- Good afternoon. That’s true I’ve been visiting Moscow for 7 times in a row, I come here every year. I’m a chess organizer in Italy. The Castelletto chess school is functioning in Milano under my aegis. I also organize away master-classes in the marine city called Savona. It’s a very beautiful place, ideal to combine vacation and chess trainings.
- Who are the trainers at your master-classes?
- We invite Russian chess players. That’s why one of the priority reasons of my visits to Moscow is contacts with Russian chess players and looking-for Russian talents. We have been partners with grandmaster Igor Gleck for many years. You have many young and strong players. Last years we invited Anastasia Savina, Gleb Apryshko, young talented chess player Irina Drogovoz. Our guests from Russia not only hold master-classes for our students, but also participate in the display multi-board chess plays, blitz tournaments.
- Have you ever studied an idea of creating a Russian chess school in Italy?
- It’s one of our main ideas at the moment. We know Moscow is the capital of the chess world, and the Moscow Open is the best open tournament in the world. When I tell my friends and colleagues that I’m going to visit Moscow, they are always happy. They also like when I inform them of the latest news from Moscow.
- What’s the level of popularity of the chess in Italy?
- I can’t confirm that our mass media pays too much attention to the chess. We are proud of our main chess hope Fabiano Caruana. We are doing our best to develop the chess in our country and I hope that everything will be even better.
- Like it in Russia?
- We will obviously need some time for that (laughing). People in Italy love great Russian chess players. We showed the best hospitality when Kramnik, Karpov, Kasparov came to visit us. Our chess players like to watch your athletes play as they are very strong in the end game. In Italy students learn combinations. And they are either lazy or bored to play end games. That’s the reason why it’s so hard to provide our students with the end games tactics. And as they respect Russian chess players they always listen to them very attentively.
- What’s the age of the students attending your school?
- They are from 6 to 18. Adults often visit master-classes.
- You are also playing in one of the Moscow Open tournaments…
- Yes, correct. I am playing in the C tournament. In Italy I’m a national master and a professional player. And here I’m just an amateur (laughing). Participation in your tournament is a great school for me personally.
- Will you come next year?
- I think, yes. I like it here. I love Moscow so much that I am even fond of your specific frosty weather. The atmosphere at the Moscow Open in the RSSU is always great. And the number of beautiful girls playing chess is amazing. Unfortunately there is nothing similar in Italy.
Anna Kalyaeva asked the questions.