From Momentoo: Faces of Calvià

by ChessBase
11/24/2004 – At the Chess Olympiad in Calvià we met the Dutch photographer Fred Lucas, the man with the Big Lens. The man who disdains flashes and works mainly with available light. As usual Fred took some of the best pictures we have seen from the event. Here is a small selection of the Faces of Calvià.
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"My relation with chess is simple," says Fred Lucas. "I'm a photographer who is very fond of the game, loves the atmosphere at tournaments – it's if you can really feel all the ideas coming up on all those boards – and I loves to make pictures, especially with available light. What I like most when photographing chess players is to get their emotions that are otherwise hard to see, because life immediately proceeds to the next moment. Before the start of a game most players are busy with themselves, concentrating and some give you the impression that they really don't want to pay attention to anything else than the game to come."

We met Fred at the Chess Olympiad in Calvià. He walked around with his giant lens, one that had a relatively modest focal length (up to 200mm), but extreme light-gathering power.

He does own a flash, but just barely. In Calvià it wasn't working, and wasn't welcome. With the long range Mr Available Light was able to take some remarkable shots, which we share with you here. If you enjoy these pictures there are many more at Fred's Momentoo site. The URL is given at the bottom of the page.

The Faces of Calvià


Vassily Ivanchuk, Ukraine
Allor Chukwuka, Nigeria

Paridar Shadi, Iran
Velikhanli Firuza, Azerbaijan

Viktor Kortschnoj, Switzerland
Sergey Karjakin, Ukraine

Ulf Anderssen, Sweden
Farley Terry, Barbados

Alexei Shirov, Spain
Solis Gabriela, Bolivia

Jane Wambugu Wanjiru, Kenya
Evelyne Gichuru Wanjiru, Kenya

Boris Ferrufino, Bolivia
Elnami Abdalla, Libya

Severin Papa, Switzerland
Alexander Grischuk, Russia

Teimour Radjabov, Azerbaijan
Viswanathan Anand, India

Alexander Morozevich, Russia
Jhonny Chatjur Cueto, Bolivia

Xie Jun, China
Susan Polgar, USA


Magnus Carlsen, Norway


Mohamed Eiman, Libya


Almira Skripchenko, France


Marta Zielinska, Poland


Irina Krush, USA

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