When the chess fan crosses the threshold of the Llobregat Open Chess Tournament, he/she knows that he/she will meet the main present minds of the game-science, grandmasters coming from all over the world with the aim of putting their name in gold letters with a great victory. Now, as you look around the playing hall you will notice that, in competition with the top swords, there is a generation of very young talents who are called to carry the torch of chess, destined to shed light to clear the darkness of the mysteries of the board. And, among these chosen ones, today we will introduce you to Alex Villa.
The first fact that will help us gauge his potential is that he is the highest ranked U-14 player in Spain. Not in vain is being sponsored by El Llobregat Chess Tournament and their games are followed with special affection by the organization. How can Alex’s heart not be stolen from us if we have watched him grow up throughout his childhood? He holds the title of teacher of the International Federation but, under the fringe, we family friends still see the child who played his first school championships with the gleam of illusion in his eyes. The same as when he plays table tennis, another of his many hobbies.
Sometimes, when his father (the master Roberto Villa) tells me how important it is that Alex continues to take care of his studies at school, we can not help but laugh remembering that, during his time coming to chess classes at the Club d’Escacs Vila Olímpica, I put him on a chair to share with his classmates the joy of having won the championship of Catalonia U-8. It’s just that he was very young and the people behind him couldn’t see him! These were moments of shyness, when the young chess player began to glimpse that what he had done was meritorious.
In those years, which are now behind us, the main characteristic of his chess was the roguery, the setting up of traps for his rivals, taking advantage of the fact that his calculation reached farther, assuming unnecessary risks. Experience and well-directed training have endowed him with the necessary solidity, an absolutely necessary requirement for mastery, but don’t worry: Alex will always be one of those who are not afraid of hand-to-hand combat.
This season’s main objectives are the World Championship in Brazil and the European Championship in Prague. That is, in strictly sporting terms. However, he is aware that defeat is part of the athlete’s life and that, as a life goal, in everything, true success is to cultivate the capacity for resilience: to get up stronger when things don’t go as expected.
You can enjoy, below, a vibrant game of Alex Villa.
By Jorge I. Aguadero Casado, editor-in-chief of Peón de Rey.
