Last winter, Victor Wembanyama set out to pay chess in New York while on a break between games in Manhattan and Brooklyn. At the time, he posted that he would be in the park and invited others to play.
At the the time, Wemby expressed an interest in creating a tournament among NBA players. On Sunday, Victor Wembanyama hosted his own basketball x chess event in his hometown of Le Chesnay, France, launching the first phase of his vision.
Wemby’s inaugural “Hoop Gambit” paired a chess tournament with one-on-one and three-on-three basketball competitions on courts that Wemby had designed.
Recently, Wemby shared,
“There was a long period in my life while I did not play much, but I learned chess when I was around 10 years old and played for half a year in a chess club. I like chess because it challenges the brain big time.”
The chess tournament featured dozens of competitors ranging in ages form 5 to 90. Chess streamer Julien Song participated as did Rudy Gobert (pictured below).
At the end seven rounds, International Master (IM) Yovann Gatineau was the chaos champion.
This looks to be the first of many competitions for Wemby engaging in his fascination with chess. He does have a goal of taking chess to All-Star Weekend in the future.
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