The European Rapid and Blitz Chess Tournament venue, Katowice, is a Polish city with modern urban architecture. It looks more like an American city, and it has tall buildings in the center and wide streets and boulevards. It also has a vast sports arena called Spodek, which translates to “saucer”.

The Spodek Arena was the venue for the 2021 edition of the European Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship. The championship was organized really well in such circumstances. One should keep in mind that there were strict sanitary rules in Poland in December 2021.

Katowice is only about 80 kilometers west of Krakow. Therefore, driving there for this tournament was a good option for me.

The blitz championship took place on Friday and was won by the local chess star Jan Krzysztof Duda. The rapid chess tournament followed on Saturday and Sunday (17-18.12.2021). The playing rate was 15 minutes for the game, with 10 seconds added after each move. Six rounds were played on Saturday and five on Sunday.

I played only in the rapid section of the championship among other 570 players. The tournament was open for any chess player in Europe. There were registered players from 23 countries, and I was the only player from Romania. The Covid pandemic was at its peak in Poland, and many players chose not to risk traveling to play in an event with so many people.

I was pleased with my game from the first round. I met a Polish International Master. The game was exciting and intense, but I made a mistake in mutual time trouble and lost. This is my only game recorded from the 11 played in the tournament. A couple of days later, a colleague told me that my opponent is a famous chess player and streamer in Poland. He finished fifth at the end of the tournament.

The next rounds also came with some hard-fought games, which I am happy for. I wanted to have fun, and it was a great experience. My opponents ranged from 12 to 65 years old, mainly from Poland, and five of them were children.

My result was 4.5 points out of 11 games, but I should have made at least 5 points based on the initial rating and ranking. As a consequence, I lost 40 ELO rapid chess points. The ratings for blitz, rapid and standard (classical) chess are differently measured.

The majority of participants were young. This is very good for the chess future. After the “Queen Gambit” series, there is a lot of interest in this game worldwide. Some youtube channels with chess content have more than one million subscribers.

It is good that the parents understood the benefits of chess for the development of children. It is good that the parents understood the benefits of chess for the development of children. Chess offers the possibility of learning things not covered in schools, such as decision-making and assuming consequences.

The organizers did an excellent job of transmitting live the tournament on youtube, with interviewers and professional players commenting on the games. Lately, chess has been a lot about content streaming.

Chess is very popular in Poland. Besides the European Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship, the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship was hosted in Warsaw at the end of December.

Spodeck was the largest indoor venue of its kind in Poland until it was surpassed by Tauron Arena in 2014. A fun fact is that I participated in sports competitions in both arenas in two months. The Krakow half marathon ended inside Tauron Arena.