On the charming Polanki Street, running along the edge of forests on the moraine, the former main route leading from Gdansk through Wrzeszcz to Oliwa, there is a palace and monastery complex in the classical style dating from the eighteenth century, known as Manor II.

Since 1992 the Order of the Most Holy Saviour of Saint Bridget (the Brigidine Sisters) and Ecumenical Centre has been located here.

The Sisters and members of the Ecumenical Centre pray for the restoration of full unity of the faith-divided, the evangelisation of unbelievers or already de-Christianised, and that the priesthood most fully serves the work of unification.

Courtesy of the Brigidine Sisters, the Second Polish Clergy Chess Championship was hosted in the Ecumenical Centre.

We were pleased to see an increase in the number of participants spending a few holiday days at the chessboard, but not only at the chessboard. The atmosphere of Gdansk, Sopot and Gdynia, and the proximity of the sea, meant that it was easier to embrace the everyday life to which we returned during mealtime talks.

However, a lot of attention was always paid to matters relating to the struggle at the chessboards, the suitability of this or that move, of this or another chess piece.

Cervantes, in his novel "Don Quixote," had one of his characters say about life “it's like in a game of chess: so long as the game lasts each piece has its own particular office, but when the game is finished they are all mixed, jumbled up and shaken together, and stowed away in the bag, which is much like ending life in the grave …” (volume II, chapter XII).

This gives much food for thought, particularly in the context of responsibility for so-called "little things in life." “It's a little thing” says someone about something unimportant. In chess, though, one cannot say about a pawn “It's nothing, I can sacrifice it without a purpose.” This "little thing" has a Queen in its backpack. And that is why so much effort is made to advance at least one pawn to the opponent’s rear rank. What Cervantes says is true, that after the game all together are stowed into one bag as into the grave, but with the knowledge as to the enormous effort expended to turn a pawn into a Queen.

When the last game was finished, when the excitement had worn off, when the cups and diplomas were awarded, our chess adventure in Gdansk ended, but only for a while. It will continue next year in the Higher Theological Seminary in Radom.

We would like to express our gratitude to the Brigidine Sisters for their hospitality and for allowing us to spend several days in a pleasant part of Poland.

And we express our gratitude to the President of the Pomeranian Chess Federation for the gifts of chess books and magazines.

Fr. Stanislaw Debowski - Diocese of Radom