Fr. Matthew is not the only one who plays chess

Let him raise his hand who, after watching the Queen's Gambit, wanted to start playing chess. Here's the thing. What is it about this game that one series was enough for people not only in Poland, but all over the world to become fascinated with it? Where did this sudden interest come from?

Marcel Duchamp, a high-class chess player, once said that "while not all artists are chess players, all chess players are artists." The artistry with which the players move the pawns around the board, the concentration on their faces, the specific tension that accompanies each game - the game of chess is an art that not everyone can relate to. There is also an element of secret knowledge in this game, something intangible. One move can determine the outcome of the entire game.

The smell of varnished figures

Fr. Mateusz Zmigrodzki, well known to Poles in the serial, is not the only clergyman who plays chess. Also among the lecturers of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin one can find amateurs of this game. One of them is Rev. Dr. Slawomir Pawlowski SAC, head of the Ecumenism Section at the Institute of Theological Sciences of the Catholic University of Lublin.

- There was a club in Chelm. I remember getting there as a nine-year-old. There was some kind of championship, and I happened to be passing by in the market. I walked in - and was immediately enchanted by the atmosphere. To this day I remember the smell of varnished figures from that time. Now they don't smell like that anymore", says the clergyman about his chess beginnings.

Rev. Pawlowski returned to playing chess relatively recently, 10 years ago. After entering the seminary, for reasons unknown to himself, he stopped playing. It was a stroke of luck that chess itself came back to him.

- One day, here at the University  - I remember it like today, it was May - I was walking through the courtyard. Next to the statue of John Paul II, a chess simultane was held. A chess master was playing. I decided to face him. I lost, but I did not give up. And something touched me then to return to it. And after a 28-year break I returned," recalls Fr. Pawlowski.

Returns are sometimes difficult. Rev. Pawlowski had to dedicate a lot of time and sometimes nerves to practising, thanks to which he now plays better than in his youth. He thoroughly solved chess tasks and read books on chess. He analysed the games of champions and honed his skills during each game.

- It's wonderful that in the chess age there is no obstacle at all, that some confident drifter can get a beating from a little girl," says Fr. Pawlowski, laughing at the same time.

Championships on the Vistula River

Rev. Pawlowski once again had the opportunity to test his abilities during the XXII International Polish Clergy Classic Chess Championship, which was played July 10-15 this year at the Higher Seminary in Sandomierz. It is worth mentioning that Fr. Pawlowski won the title of champion of the 20th edition of this championship in 2021.