The second edition of the Alliance Games took place between the 20th and the 27th of October and featured an online chess tournament and an on-site volleyball mixed tournament. These sport tournaments are part of the EUNICE Weeks, a series of cultural and sport events meant to shape our multicultural identity as Europeans
The international competition between the EUNICE partner universities took off on 20th October with an online commented chess tournament in which 43 chess players competed via a Swiss online chess platform. The first prize, a 320-euro voucher to encourage mobility within EUNICE and participation in an international chess tournament, was won by player Mikołaj Nowak (2,595 points), representing Poznań University of Technology (PUT-Poland). Also on the podium were player Víctor Moreno Royano (2,498) and last year’s winner Benjamin Maltier (2,368 points), from University of Cantabria (UC-Spain) and University of Mons (UMONS-Belgium) respectively.
The games were streamed on the EUNICE YouTube channel with lively comments from Lara Hernández and Jan Kabzinski and organisational support from the French-speaking Chess Federation of Belgium. More than 100 viewers followed the games throughout the evening and interacted in the chat with the organisers and the commentators. Many players expressed gratitude over the organisation of a tournament that allowed them to connect with students from other countries.
The second event of the Alliance Games was the mixed-gender volleyball on-site tournament held at the Poznań University of Technology (PUT-Poland), from 23rd to 27th October. This volleyball tournament was won by the team representing the University of Catania (UNICT-Italy), followed by the ones from PUT (Poznań, Poland) and from Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France (UPHF – Valenciennes, France).
The organisation of the tournament and accompanying events was handled by the whole EUNICE PUT Team with great help from PUT Sports Centre.
More than 80 players, their coaches and EUNICE staff gathered in Poland to take part in the tournament, but also to discover Poznań and its university.
Besides the on-site tournament, participants discovered Polish music, traditional Polish outfits and Polish folk dances presented by the Poligrodzianie Folk Team. They had also the opportunity to take part in a guided tour through the most famous places in the city of Poznań. This first large-size gathering of EUNICE students was also a great occasion to present EUNICE and the opportunities that the alliance represents for students and to have a face-to-face meeting of the EUNICE Student Advisory Board.
Despite a competitive spirit inherent to every sport tournament, all the games took place in a joyful atmosphere with EUNICE students getting to know each other on and off the court.
About EUNICE
EUNICE, the European University for Customised Education, is designed to solve social and economic challenges, both globally and locally. In 2020, EUNICE was selected during the second call for pilot projects of European Universities of the European Commission. The alliance is nurtured by ten universities’ intellectual and infrastructure input –Poznań University of Technology (Poland), Brandenburg University of Technology (Germany), University of Cantabria (Spain), University of Mons (Belgium), University of Catania (Italy), Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France (France), University of Vaasa (Finland), Polytechnic Institute of Viseu (Portugal), University of Peloponnese (Greece) and University of Karlstad (Sweden)–.
This alliance, born from the European Universities initiative and funded by the European Commission, is building a solid network of interactions between educational institutions and other agents to work on social and economic challenges.
