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SKEMA’s team wins French University Chess Championship
SKEMA has some talented chess players in its student community. Nizar Alrobiai, Alexandre Houhou and Yovann Gatineau, from the Master in Management (PGE) programme, won the French University Chess Championship on 6 February in Limoges.
No, chess is not outdated, and Yovann, Alexandre and Nizar will certainly not be telling you any different. These three players won the latest edition of the French University Chess Championship in Limoges, where they proudly represented SKEMA. "I have been playing chess in a club since the age of nine; it is one of my true passions," said Nizar Alrobiai, a Master 1 student doing a double degree in Management and Business Law and currently interning at a business law firm in Paris.
An international master at SKEMA
Yovann Gatineau is an M1 PGE student and one of the best players in his category. "I have always really loved chess. I met Nizar through another competition in the circuit," he explained. Yovann has been doing a gap-year internship since January in Crédit Agricole's finance department. An outstanding player, Yovann holds the title of international master (IM), meaning he has an excellent level and a total of at least 2,400 Elo points.
Supported by SKEMA
For their competitions, the three students are supported by the SKEMA Sports team, which pays for their travel and motivates them. "We are strongly supported by SKEMA. We can count on the help of Nathalie Sanchez and Nicolas Martin, who are always there for us," said Nizar Alrobiai and Yovann Gatineau.
Train, over and over
To train, the three students work on their strategies using the ChessBase software, where they can learn to anticipate what their adversary's opening move might be to better counter it. But all three students admit that, "Playing is still the best way to learn".
With this victory, the three players have qualified for the European Universities Chess Championship, to be held in Lodz, Poland, from 14 to 20 July 2022.
