Former diarist, Cibele Florêncio changes her life as ‘the chess girl’

​Cibele Florêncio, 24, has always been called Bele, but earlier this year she got another nickname: “the chess girl”.

It was an almost natural consequence of unexpected fame after his participation in the World Chess Championship, with games in Poland from December 26 to 30. “I never thought this would happen when I got back,” says Cibele.

“That” goes beyond the nickname. The resident of Macaíba, a city of 80,000 inhabitants in the metropolitan region of Natal, was cleaning as a day laborer until the end of 2021.

Last Wednesday (23), he started a new job in the cleaning area of ​​Hospital Rio Grande, which also became his sponsor.

After Carnival, he will attend the Uninassau College of Physical Education, which gave him a scholarship.

And since January, she’s managed a celebrity schedule, full of events and interviews previously unthinkable for a shy person like her. “I had to learn not to be ashamed,” says Cibele. “I’m loving it!”

She learned to play at age 9 during compulsory lessons at school. “The pieces caught my attention. I had never seen them before and I thought they were beautiful”, she says. She was easy to understand the game, but her talent was hidden under her shyness for a while. “When the teacher asked the question, I was ashamed to speak, so I would blow the answer to a colleague.”

Until a tournament for girls her age came along. Cibele was still 9 years old and went to Natal to compete in her first chess competition. She finished as runner-up.

If she could, she would dedicate herself more to chess since that time, but that was a luxury incompatible with her life. Her mother, a lunch box seller, and her stepfather, a fishmonger, raised seven children at great cost. The dream of playing only fit in the one-hour class.

In 2014, the chess project at school ended and Cibele started practicing on her own, sometimes alone, on her cell phone. On other occasions, a sister also practiced with her. “An hour, an hour and a half, when I could. I was a day laborer, so it was difficult.”

A paltry training routine compared to that of great players, many of them exclusively dedicated to chess and with about 8 hours a day of intensive studies, in which countless game situations are analyzed from different points of view.

When he saw “The Queen’s Gambit”, the 2020 Netflix series, he identified himself from beginning to end. “It was very impactful. Beth Harmon is my inspiration. My dream is to meet the actress [Anya Taylor-Joy]”, he says, referring to the protagonist, an orphan who takes the 1950s chess world by storm.

Like Beth, Cybele struggled with tournament registration. In the series, the character has Mr. Shaibel, caretaker of the orphanage she learned to play with. In real life, the young woman from Rio Grande do Sul had Ana Lígia Dantas, 42, and André Borges, 44, her employers at the time.

“Cibele worked with us not long ago, on weekends. One day, an uncle recognized Cibele as a chess teacher in a poor community. This caught our attention”, says Ana Lígia.

A few weeks later, Cibele, already a state champion, overcame her shyness and talked about registering for the Brazilian Championship. It cost R$150, out of reach. Ana Lígia and André paid. And Cibele was national runner-up.

“I was very happy”, recalls Ana Lígia, who is a gynecologist in Natal. “It’s just that I had no idea what it meant to her.”

It represented a lot. Cibele was runner-up both in the rapid modality (15 minutes for the moves) and in the blitz (3 minutes). Chess player Renée Brambilla, 33, won both.

As a result, the two won spots for the World Cup in Poland. Registration ($300), accommodation and airfare were on their own.

“The CBX [Confederação Brasileira de Xadrez] gave all the support, but we have few resources”, says Máximo Macedo, president of the entity.

“We encourage the chess player to get funding, to have independence. We make the connections, talk, try to help in any way possible”, he says.

Cybele had no money and no passport. Nor did he know another language. He had never left the Northeast. And he has a five-year-old son, whom he raises with his mother’s help.

His situation mobilized several people in the state. A crowdfunding raised part of the money, but far from necessary.

It looked like it wasn’t going to work. With a few days to go before it was too late, the doctor Marcelo Cascudo heard the story on the radio and put the Hospital Rio Grande into play, which took care of the air ticket and the hotel.

Ana Lígia and André Borges, who today Cibele calls godmother and godfather, helped with the passport and warm clothes. They also took her to the airport on December 24, gave her tips on how to get by abroad and gave her a credit card for emergency use.

“She spent R$ 90 on the card. And that’s because we insisted that she eat a pizza, because she wasn’t eating properly”, says Ana Lígia.

Cybele says she was very scared. “Afraid of getting stuck, of losing my passport, of something bad happening. But I knew I could change my life.”

In the tournament, Cibele and Renée were among the last ones, but that was the least of it. What mattered was the experience. Even more so because they had qualified in a weaker Brazilian Championship, summoned at the last minute due to the pandemic.

Still, Cybele impressed. at the request of sheetgrandmaster André Diamant, coach of the Brazilian women’s Olympic team, analyzed a match in which she only lost because she ran out of time.

“He played extremely well,” says Diamant. “A very high level. I believe he is a great talent.”

Now Cibele wants to be able to dedicate herself only to chess. Her life has improved, but she has to wake up at 4am to get to the hospital at 7am, where she works every other day until 7pm, and returns home after 9pm.

When college starts, the routine will be more demanding. She says that if she can buy a motorcycle, she will get better.

Cybele was never one to give up. At age seven, she was helping to clean the yard when she dropped an ember on her foot. Soon a huge bubble appeared, and the mark of the accident it bears to this day.

But the next day, she would compete in a “marathon”, a test of a few hundred meters for children. She had no doubts: she went to Natal anyway, because the prize was the bike she wanted so much.

She ran barefoot, because the blister wouldn’t let her put on her sneakers. She still remembers the pain. But the pain was less than the will to win. And she won.