Have you ever played chess before? What about playing against twenty opponents at once - and winning all of those matches? Well, that's exactly what 57-year-old UK national, Nigel Short, did today. He's a chess grandmaster, having gotten the title at only 19-years-old. He was considered a prodigy as a child, and today, he works with the International Chess Federation, traveling to different countries in hopes of developing the sport.
He reached out to the British High Commissioner to Belize and she provided her residence in Belmopan as the location to host the tournament, and the Belize Chess Federation held a tournament to select the twenty persons who would be competing against Short today.
And while the entire competition lasted about two and a half hours, Short came out on top, though he did admit he struggled with some of the matches. But during his time working with the local federation, he's noticed the ways in which they can improve - and hopefully make it to the Chess Olympiad.
We spoke to him today right after the tournament.
Nigel Short, Chess Grandmaster
"There are currently some structural weaknesses in the administration and I think if they manage to get organized, there is really great hope for chess in this country and I'm not just saying that because I'm talking to the TV, I really believe it."
"Belize was one of the very few countries that did not go to the chess olympiad in Chennai last year, you had a 185 countries going there and Belize didn't send a team and that just means there's poor organization so i think there is recognition amongst the people here that they just need to be a little more disciplined."
Nicole Davison, British High Commissioner To Belize
"Nigel is a grandmaster, chess grandmaster, so I was very familiar with him because he was very famous in the UK growing up and he's got this role with the international chess federation, he emailed me a couple of months ago and said he was coming to Belize and would I be interested in helping him out in some way so I said sure, use the space here and that's how it came about working with the Belize Chess Federation."
Joshua Baeza, VP, Belize Chess Federation
"It's exciting, this kind of experience is one of a kind, this isn't something you can just read and be like okay I'm going to get, no no no, online games are completely different to face to face games like this, the experience here, one in a million, truly."
We'll have more on this story in tomorrow's newscast.
