“Henri Coandă Brainyport”

For those of us who grew up with Elizabeta Polihroniade’s image and voice and remember with nostalgia "Chess and mate in 15 minutes"  black and white TV show, Bucharest Airports National Company has prepared a surprise: on the 15^th of April, the great international master challenged us to a game of chess. The championship, called “Henri Coandă Brainyport”, was organized in partnership with Romanian Chess Federation, and brought together 14 children - future great champions, for a demonstration of art, science and sport, rewarded with prizes, medals and diplomas.

The presence of the great international master Elizabeta Polihroniade, which did us the honor of joining us for “Henri Coandă Brainyport”, helped us to see more clearly what the airport life has in common with the game of chess. Both of them have strict regulations, which you cannot fail to comply. Then, when you sit down at the chessboard and play, but also when you enter the airport, you must respect your opponent, namely the passenger, and move properly – either the chess pieces or the luggage - and fit within the time limit required by the game clock or ... by the flight timetable. Also, in both situations you cannot move forward if you do not see as far as possible. With other words, we talk strategies. And let’s not forget that if you sit at the chessboard, the game won’t start until the opponent stretches out his hand. Or the passport. We keep in mind the fact that there’s no cheating in chess and we persuade ourselves that we were right to continue “BANC – a value promoter” program with “Henri Coandă Brainyport” event which became, behold, a lesson of life and society, where sacrifices are understandable – you can even sacrifice the queen knowing that the reward will appear soon. Once these features are clarified, and with a newly trained mind we are prepared to ponder and then to act, keeping, however, in mind the thought that the modest pawn prematurely departs and still gets to be the most important piece ...