Paleochora Open 2017 - where the entire town celebrates chess!

Bride of the Libyan Sea

Continued from Part I - Stupak, Nikolov, Bernadskiy win 10th Paleochora Open

Paleochora is a small town on the Island of Crete south to mainland Greece. It is located around 77 kilomenteres south of Chania (which is also the nearest airport). It occupies a small peninsula 400 meters wide and 700 meters long! The town is set along 11 kilometers of coastline bordering the Libyan Sea. The population of the place is less than 2000!

Once there was nothing at Paleochora, not even the peninsula on which the town now stands. The ground lay beneath the sea and only the Fortezza hill, now the site of the Venetian fort, jutted up like a little island above the waves. A major earthquake made west side of Crete rise up and the peninsula of Paleochora emerged from the depths, justifying its title of "Bride of the Libyan Sea".

Travelling from India, we took a flight from Mumbai to Athens, then Athens to Chania and then a bus from Chania to Paleochora. It took us 30 hours to reach the place!

It takes about two hours to reach Paleochorafrom from Chania airport, but time just flies by when the view is so spectacular!

Houses in Paleochora are not allowed to be more than two storeys high. This, combined with the fact that part of the town is closed for traffic each evening, still gives Paleochora the feeling of a serene village.

The rocky beach on one side of the peninsula...

....and the sandy beach on the other!

Crystal clear blue water. Swimming in such water is relaxing and puts you in the perfect frame of mind before the game!

People from many parts of Europe come to spend a relaxed vacation in Paleochora. During the day it's the sunny beach...

...and at night you sit down in one of these lively cafes. 

I don't know why, but this view just kept reminding me of the popular television series "Game of Thrones"

When you see images like these, you understand that playing a tournament in Paleochora is like a dream for any chess player. But how did this tournament begin in such a small town?

How did the Paleochora Open begin?

The Paleochora Open is a wonderful event with a very decent prize fund (EUR €7,000) and a strong field of players (15 GMs and 15 IMs in the 2017 edition). How did this event, on one of the southern-most points of Europe, become so popular? It all began with a visit by GM Krum Georgiev for a simultaneous exhibition against some of the youngsters of the town.

The Mayor saw this spectacle and was fascinated by it. He decided that Paleochora should host a huge event. He was even ready to host a world championship Match! Such was his enthusiasm. 

GM Krum Georgiev — the man who is responsible for the Paleochora Open to begin! By the way, did you know Krum also beat Garry Kasparov in a wild complicated game at the Malta Olympiad 1980. Check it out!

Chania is the biggest municipality nearest to Paleochora, and the head coach of the Chania Chess Club, Kostas, and his wife Anelia Tsarouchas, took up the task of organizing the first edition of the Paleochora Open in 2008.

"We didn't really expect many entries", said Kostas, reminiscing about this pleasant memory of how the chess tournament began! "But then calls started coming in and by the end of it we had received nearly 200 entries!"

Kostas and Anelia, the power behind the Paleochora Open

IA Sotiris Logothetis has been the chief arbiter for all the ten editions!

The support from the Mayor was surely a great blessing for this tournament. Even today, in the 10th edition, the prize money of the event is provided by the Mayor. But more than prize money is needed to put on a tournament; lodging, boarding, travel, refreshments, tournament hall — so many things need to be taken care of. It was as if the entire chess community of Paleochora came together to organize this huge event and take care of all the needs of the chess players.

Whether it is a super market...

...or a shop, you could see each of them promoting the event, by putting up the tournament circular

"A few years ago, when Greece was hit by economic crisis, was a tough period for us", says Anelia. "We thought that the tournament will not be held that year. But we kept receiving calls from players that they are coming to the event! Somehow they were in love with the place and couldn't wait to return to Paleochora."

Alberto David with Inna Iasman. Alberto loves Paleochora so much that he has been to all the ten editions of the event!

Playing backgammon in one of the cafes. You could see the duo knew their place around extremely well as they travelled on bicycles and seemed very much like locals!

The tournament survived through the rough moments of economic depression. While the Mayors of Paleochora continued to support the prize fund of the event, sponsoring food and stay for top players was becoming extremely difficult. "We were able to convince the hotels to give some free rooms and the restaurants to provide food coupons. When 200 players come to the tournament, they bring with them nearly 200 accompanying persons. And this is a great avenue of promoting business for these establishments," said Anelia.

Pizzerias like Odyssey, Portofinno, Niki served some of the best pizzas that we have ever had

Kalitsounia is a famous dish in Cretan cuisine. It's a pie filled with cheese and herbs.

Even for a vegetarian like me food was not at all a problem. The Rissotto was delicious and so were the grilled vegetables!

But you are in for a real treat if you are a sea food lover. Caravella serves you fresh fish which is caught on the same day.

And you must definitely leave some space in your stomach for the dessert! This is not something that you have to pay for. When you ask for the check, the restaurants provide you with Raki (an alcholic drink) and some fruit (watermelon above) which is on the house. Mind you, every restaurant in Paleochora follows this tradition.

The staff at each of the restaurants was very friendly and pleasant. For example Cafe Zygos, where we had our breakfast each day. Woman power at its best!

Analysis room...nah: analysis street!

The tournament hall is in the centre of Paleochora and the analysis room is the street right outside it! Around 15 chessboards are laid out and anyone could sit down and play a game of chess or watch a grandmaster analyzing! What a nice way to popularize the game!

Midnight chaos! Team Blitz tournament!

On Sunday a lot of chess players came from Chania and adjoining areas to watch the tournament. The organizers policy is simple - everyone should get a chance to play chess! And hence a team blitz tournament was organized after the round ended around 11 p.m. The event was meant just for fun - no entry fees, no prizes. Yet, 41 teams participated. That's nearly 160 players! And everyone was blitzing out moves until 3 a.m. at night! It was a congregation of true chess lovers, that's all I can say!

A nice way to decorate the shop, wouldn't you agree?!

Street shopping options with local handicrafts

The author of these lines at the famous ruins in Paleochora

Visiting Paleochora was perhaps one of the best decisions for Amruta and me! We had a wonderful time, not just sight seeing, enjoying the beach and food, but the tournament also went pretty well for us. I scored 6.5/9, finished 19th and gained a few Elo points. More importantly I enjoyed playing chess in the stress-free environment. I would like to sign off the article with one of the games that I played and liked very much.

This two-minute video gives you the feel of how beautiful the town of Paleochora is!

Links

• Official site
• Part I - Stupak, Nikolov, Bernadskiy win 10th Paleochora Open
• Full results (Chess-Results)
• An Indian chess wedding