At just 15 years old, David Gutiérrez has participated in local and international tournaments in his favorite sport: chess.
David, a 9-year-old student in our school, is passionate about chess and, encouraged by his father, participated in a trial chess tournament to see how he played. He achieved an excellent result, placing among the top 10. Seeing what he was capable of without any prior training, he decided to join the Alfaz del Pí chess club, where he will learn and study new strategies. With these new strategies in hand, David traveled to Benidorm to play in another tournament, where he sensationally finished third. He continued training and studying hard, perfectly balancing his passion with his studies. In 2010, he began playing in international tournaments, where he encountered many players from other countries who competed at a very high level. Until then, he had only participated in international tournaments within Spain. The last one he played in (December 2011), which, as he himself says, went quite well, saw him finish roughly in the middle of the pack. At the 2011 Benidorm School Olympics, David participated in the chess tournament for Lope de Vega School, securing a gold medal for his school. He repeated this feat in 2012, this time achieving second place and the silver medal. Currently, he participates in numerous local tournaments, consistently placing in the top five. Last year, he played in a total of nine tournaments, reaching the podium in seven! He even won the league with his chess club, earning them promotion to the Honor Division, although David prefers to play with the reserve team to help and mentor the younger players. He continues to train for about three hours a week if he can. When asked if he wanted to continue playing and also participate in international tournaments in other countries, outside of Spain, he replied very modestly, "Of course I'd like to, but to get there I still have to study and train a lot." Natalie Zimmermann (4th-B ESO)
