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Living Chess Festival
Living Chess Festival 2009
Location: Javea port
Description: Chess using people as chess pieces
Start Date: 25th July
End Date: 25th July
This is a tradition that has been held now since 1996 arranged via a collaboration of the Town Hall, the Chess Club and the Bank Caja de Ahorros del Mediterraneo. School children act out the play while representing the chess pieces and each year has a different theme with music and choregography chosen for the kids to perform.
As well as the chess pieces there is a narrator and two players who read out the different moves of a game, including the History of Chess. One of the players is the annual local junior champion chess player and the other normally a Guest of Honour such as a renowned Spanish celebrity invited specially for the occasion, who is either a keen chess player themselves or closely related to Jávea.
In 2002 it was awarded the Spanish prize of Festival of National Tourist Interest/Fiesta De Interés Turistíco Nacional.
You do not have to know the rules of the game to enjoy and understand this theatrical representation!
Went to this for the first time this year and it was absolutely fantastic, an absolute joy to watch and will definitely be going again next year