news

"News server Dobrénoviny.sk reports 11-year-old chess player Agáta Berková is achieving unprecedented success in competition and has even played Russian chess grandmaster Anatoly Karpov to a draw after being trained by her father who, along with his chess team called "Hrochotskské jezdci" ("The Hippopotamus Riders"), has broken the stereotypical belief that Roma cannot play chess. Berková is a native of the Slovak town of Poltár, and her love of chess reportedly dates to the first time she sat behind a chessboard at the age of a year and a half.

In addition to being Romani, Agáta has to deal with the fact that she is a girl in the chess world, but thanks to her participation in tournaments, she has traveled all over Slovakia with her father. She did not go to Russia, but she did manage to meet Russian chess grandmaster Karpov twice to play with him.

During an exhibition performance, the chess master played her on multiple chessboards simultaneously - and ultimately, it was a draw. Agáta has also played champion Tomáš Krňan of Canada to a draw.

When Agáta was even younger, she frequently competed in tournaments with adult players. Berko remembers one adult competitor who, according to him, could have scored as high as 1800 on the Elo skill-rating system, but when the contestant realized he was losing to a girl - and a Romani girl at that - he angrily threw the pieces away after his loss.

For her part, Agáta has said she would like to attain a good education in addition to winning great chess results. "I would either like to become a divorce lawyer, or a scientist to invent a cure for my brothers who suffer from autism," the promising chess player, who also gets good grades at school, told the Dobrénoviny.sk server.

In the GPX competition, Agáta was the Slovak champion in the eight-year-old and younger category. She finished fifth at the European Championships."

Very cute and uplifting story :)