Tuesday, December 7, 2010, at 12:30 PM
IBM – Route de Saint-Laurent – La Gaude
Pioneering in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease, the city of Nice and the Memory Resource and Research Center (CMRR) are in constant search to improve the living conditions of patients, study this still poorly understood disease, and provide answers to patients and their families.
Thus, Nice has joined an international project in partnership with Russia to address these questions: “What are the keys to ‘aging well’? Can it be demonstrated that playing chess helps prevent and fight against Alzheimer’s disease?”
Sixteen senior chess players, 8 French and 8 Russian, will compete on December 6 and 7 between Nice and Moscow, thanks to the innovative telepresence system created by Cisco and integrated by IBM, with three objectives:
– On the social level: to draw the attention of the media and public authorities to the situation of elderly people in our two countries;
– On the health level: to observe the possible link between chess practice and the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease: medical imaging on a chess player’s brain (MRI), neuropsychological tests, and behavioral assessment;
– On the sporting level: to highlight the practice of chess.
The scientific data on the players, both emotional and physiological, will be collected and analyzed by Professors Vladimir Zakharov of Moscow’s First State Medical University Setchenov and Philippe Robert of the Nice University Hospital, who will notably use the sensory sensor technology developed by the French start-up Verylife.
This project is part of the France-Russia Year.
It is organized by the French Embassy in Moscow, under the high patronage of the Russian Ministry of Health and Social Development, the French Ministry of Health, and the Alzheimer’s Mission to the French President, in partnership with the French and Russian chess federations, the “Echiquier Niçois” club and with the exceptional participation of Anatoli Karpov and Joël Lautier, international chess grandmasters.
