Jan Horčička

Croatia

I am a student, born in 2007. I don’t remember when I learned the rules of chess, my favorite sport, but I do remember that my dad taught me the rules and that I started actively playing it about 7 years ago when I was 7 years old. My confidence is usually very low, and I’m not an ambitious person so I never have plans or goals, but that helps me because I am never disappointed with any of my performances and it’s easier for me to try my best and enjoy myself without too much stress. My biggest role model in chess is obviously Mikhail Tal, who is, in my opinion, the best and most exciting player ever. I also like Paul Morphy, Gioachino Greco, and other masters from the romantic era.

I don’t have a favorite chess tournament, but it’s always a special feeling to be part of a team, and there’s nothing better than helping it achieve victory. I think my team is special and I would never play for a different one. Even when we are not in the first place, we still fight, win when nobody expects us to and foil the plans of other teams. Unfortunately, my best friend, biggest rival, and possibly our best player will go to high school in a different town and he probably won’t play for us anymore. When he leaves us, that will be an end of a unique and very successful era that might never happen again for our club. However, we still have at least one competition with him and we will do everything we can to make the best out of it, and I hope I will be able to help.

I am a very lazy person, but I try to not let that stop me from achieving great results not just in chess, but in other competitions as well. I prefer OTB over online chess just like most people, but I think an advantage of online chess is that you’re able to listen to music while you’re playing. I like almost all subgenres of rock, but when I’m playing online chess or before an OTB game I usually listen to metal and hard rock because it pumps me up. When I don’t feel like rock music, the only other genre I can listen to is classical music, which goes along with chess if you ask me. Outside of chess, I love watching other sports, especially darts, as well as football, handball, basketball, volleyball, ice hockey etc.