The huge cup received for his victory on Sunday is almost half his size. It comes to join others, but it is this one that has the most value. Just back from the 2021 French Youth Chess Championships, organized in Agen (Lot-et-Garonne), from October 24 to 31, the 9-year-old young Chartreuse wears it humbly, with a slight touch of pride.
Meeting with his idols
Champion of France of the U10, a title which could make you dizzy, but that the young boy, number 2 French in his category and 16th at the world level, simply assumes: “I was leaving favorite, among the 130 children of my age. I drew two and won seven games. Throughout the championship, I was confident, with the impression that my pieces were better placed. “
The presentation of the title and the cup, very solemn, “is a moment that I go over a lot in my head,” he smiles. A championship which also allowed him to meet one of his idols, the French international grand master Laurent Fressinet, who was able to congratulate him.
Containment: C’Chartres Chess organized an online tournament
“After the victory, my son told me that it was his best performance since he beat the international grandmaster Namig Guliyev, in a simultaneous game, in Chartres”, recalls his father, Marius Voinea, also a player. of chess. It was he who gave his son the gambling virus, around the age of 6. And who took him to the French Adult Championships, in Chartres, in 2019. A click, then, for David who wanted to get into a club. “I was fascinated by the game and I wanted to learn like them,” he recalls.
Currently licensed at the Parisian club Jeu d’Échecs at the École Normale (Jeen), where one of the best players in the world trains her, David first spent two years at the C’Chartres Échecs club, where he was trained. , notably by Victor Stephan and Namig Guliyev, two heavy recruits from the Chartres club. He then won his first great victory, the title of regional vice-champion, in 2019.
David Lacan with the cup received during the championship.
Aware of his strengths – “tactics, arithmetic” – and weaknesses – “positional play” – David has been working for two years to get to this level, with at least two official lessons per week. An intense rhythm that he also compensates with his sports sessions, to let off steam. “To be good, you have to learn to visualize the chessboard in your head, to have two or three moves in advance”, specifies the boy. “You have to know how to anticipate the opponent’s placement. Able to play blind, without seeing the game board, the young boy has got into the habit of training in this way as well.
For this child with high potential educated in CM1, also gifted at tennis and at the piano, chess constitutes a brain activity which channels him and pushes him in his capacities.
“A strong competitive inclination”
“I felt that David had a strong penchant for competition,” says his father. “I thought it was a shame to leave this potential untapped. There is that joy in winning, like winning a game of tennis. It is a culmination, a sequence that does him good. He is also a very sensitive child, and we had to learn to manage defeats, which could sometimes be badly experienced at the start ”.
“The joy of accompanying him, of seeing him succeed, is the role of any parent and that makes us proud,” adds his mother, Devia Lacan-Rus.
Indeed a competitor, the young David always keeps an eye on the Elo ranking, a system of comparative evaluation in points of the level of play of chess players. “I am classified with 1,855 points and I hope to reach 2,000 points before the end of the year. “
Does he already see himself as a future professional player? “So far I haven’t thought about it,” says the man who sees chess as a hobby. “I thought more of a university president or a college or high school teacher. “
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