The contrast couldn’t be more black and white: inside the competition room at the Corsica Chess Club in Bastia, a handful of players are locked in monastic silence and iron-clad concentration over the boards. Outside in the waiting room on a Sunday in early February, 15 or so young faces are squashed against the glass of the partition doors, with dozens more children and parents behind them; they’re yakking, laughing, mucking about, but above all, they are desperate to get back into the room for the next round and play more chess.
