 Hello everybody and welcome back to round eight of Battle of the Sexes here in Gibraltar. Ghib Ches 2022, we're live from the Garrison Library and I'm absolutely delighted to be joined by his worship the mayor of Gibraltar, Christian Santos. Thank you Christian for coming. Thanks for having me. Fantastic to be here. You know you're wearing that. I was thinking about wearing one of those. You decided better, a bit more casual. Now as you know this tournament has attracted so much attention. Locally it's in the newspaper, local media, but around the world 20 countries represented here. My understanding is you're a newish mayor. Yeah I've just been in office for just over six months. Six months. So how important is it for Gibraltar at the moment to sort of you know attract international eyes, let's call it like that as well? The chess festival has always been a huge event here in Gibraltar. It's supported by the government, supported by the community and it's one of our biggest tourism-led events and it has a huge international repercussion because we have usually over 200 players as you know and it's always been one of the biggest competitions worldwide. Very respected and it's great for us to be able to host it. We are living in a time at the moment where you know with the covid etc you know the c-word but it's fantastic that we can still host events like this. It's not only important for Gibraltar but for the whole chess fraternity because what you say with organizing an event like this which is a bit smaller but it's still happening, it's current and it's still got all international eyes on it because there are many events that are not able to happen. So it's important for us to be able to host this for the world to see what we've got to offer here in Gibraltar and what's fantastic about this event is not only that the subject matter of Battle of the Sexes but also the fact that we can showcase our heritage sites and that is something that we in Gibraltar are very proud of. We have a long history, we're a small but very mighty nation with a huge history, not at the buildings where this is held is stunning. Yeah I mean we had the director Jennifer Ballantyne, she came in here and talked to us about just how important this building is and the history and heritage here and you're absolutely right. And the prize giving is actually at the City Hall at the Mayor's Parlor which is another fantastic venue and I've never been there actually. Well you'll see umphers there. Okay brilliant, excellent. Now let's talk a bit about the format. We have Battle of the Sexes and clearly you know it's a very special format and unique to our game or our sport because naturally in other sports it's a bit more difficult to organise. How do you see it as a concept and perhaps in line with what you're trying to achieve also as Mayor in other projects related to? My time in office I've dedicated to celebrate the diversity and inclusivity within our community here in Gibraltar and I think it's something that we are not only proud of but we work towards having that equality and equity between you know different people with different backgrounds. Now the good thing about chess is that it's the one sport that you can actually have an even playing field between the sexes but also people from different economic backgrounds. It's one of those sports that you can have a fair chance no matter who you are and I know that women in any type of sport are always trailing along unless it's specifically female sports and it's fantastic to put men and women on an even playing field and it does matter who will win at the end on Thursday because as long as we've seen that the competition is fair and it's worked whether the males or the females win it will just prove that both sexes can work together and compete together. Absolutely and as things stand I mean the competition is tight as you like there's only four points separating after seven rounds four get four points there are still on paper 30 games so that's 30 points up for grabs it's anybody's and on Saturday the girls are winning by a point I think and now the the guys are I mean it's gone but it's been a roller coaster sometimes yeah the girls were winning and then in some rounds they have a huge advantage and it's been it's been great entertainment so we can't complain about that and are you just out of interest are you chess player at all do you ever pick up the pick up the pieces I don't and I discussed this the other day when I would when I met someone I've just did so now it's the type of game I would love to have the ability or the predisposition because I'm not the type of person who can sit at a table and I envy it I watch people play like I just went into that room and I started the game between the two grandmasters that I'm so privileged to have done and I see the type of person and the energy that's in that room and I think my hand is always you know I wish I could but I haven't actually ventured into it but could surprise me yeah you never know I mean what I would hope is that because I know there's a grassroots community here in Gibraltar promoting chess and there was chess in schools and one day I tell you this I've said this already on stream but you've got the Gibraltar football team you've got I think probably hockey as well yeah we're good at hockey as well basketball rugby do you have us we have rugby we kind of have all this all the sports I'm when's the chess team that's what I want to know that's the next project I want to see them yes yeah and I think it should go back into schools there was a bit before because you know at the moment we're on a pre-covid post-covid time yeah there was a big campaign to get the schools involved and there was quite a lot of students and and now I think we need to get them back hopefully when things get back to normal we can start doing that well look I mean I just want to say I've said this as well to all of our esteemed guests thank you for the support continue support you and the government and and local authorities because it does mean a lot for us to be able to host a tournament I'm a I'm a chess player chess fan and I know that everybody in this community millions of people have got their eyes on this tournament so thank you for for all you do and thank you for being here no fantastic it's an honor for us to be able to host this event here and so many people so many eyes on Gibraltar the games and how we do things and fantastic to welcome anyone and I invite anyone actually to come to Gibraltar see what we've got to offer and especially you should have come today because it's gorgeous outside today sunny it was raining for a week today I couldn't this was the Gibraltar I remember you go and have a coffee outside gorgeous weather yeah I sincerely recommend it so come to visit Gibraltar if you can thank you so much thank you for coming and we'll get to the games in just a moment we'll go for a short break and see how the action is developing in round eight see you soon