Dear Chess Friends,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

A warm welcome to the World Chess Championship in Bonn where not only the most beautiful game, but as Aristotle has it, the absolute “Game of Games” will be celebrated this year.

Nevertheless, to this day, chess still ranks among the underrated sports in Germany and this is unlikely to change quickly, given the impression made by the European Football Championship a few weeks ago. But it is an undeniable fact that hundreds of thousands of people are members of no less than 4,000 chess clubs, and I feel quite sure that, once one has reached the age of 40, one finds the royal game preferable to the physically quite demanding kick-about on the playing field. As everyone knows, comparisons do not work, but they are fun: in chess you do not eliminate your opponent by scoring goals, but you eliminate pawns, castles, knights, bishops, queens, and in the end the king. Good games are not over after a mere 90 minutes, and even in the case of a draw there is no extra time. In addition, in chess there is not just one rule for the kick-off: innumerable opening moves are possible. And there are almost as many tactics and strategies as there are players.

There are even more reasons why chess binds so many people of all ages to the board: what counts here are strategic thinking, courage to take (calculated) risks, stamina, consistency, patience and the ability to make the right move at the right time – just as in real, everyday life.

I hope that you and all of us may witness exciting, fascinating matches.

Yours,

Peer Steinbrück

Profile:
Peer Steinbrück, born in Hamburg in 1947, is Federal Minister of Finance. Since studying economics and social sciences in Kiel he has held, among other positions, that of personal advisor to several federal ministers; he has worked for the SPD parliamentary party and in the department of the Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, and he was the head of Johannes Rau’s office when Rau was Prime Minister in North-Rhine Westphalia, Secretary of State and Minister in Schleswig-Holstein and in North-Rhine Westphalia where Rau was Prime Minister from 2002 to 2005 and Member of the State Parliament from 2000 to 2005.

It was Peer Steinbrück’s grandmother who taught him to play chess (”She was merciless!“).  His most treasured chess experience: the game against the then world champion Vladimir Kramnik in March 2005 when he had to concede defeat “only” after 35 moves. In addition to playing chess (mostly against his computer) he is an enthusiastic reader of historical novels, thrillers and classic comics; he loves the cinema.