"Women chess players can be fierce competition to men"

Introduced to the world of chess by her grandfather, she was enrolled in a school chess club at the age of seven and has been competing regularly since. Unuk says that chess is special to her. "I was attracted by the chess pieces, the endless number of moves, the fact that every game is unique. At the same time, playing chess improves your math and logic skills and memory."

Unuk was only 14 when she won the World Youth Chess Championship in the under-16 category in 2014. Last September, she secured the world champion title in the girls' under-18 category in Montevideo, Uruguay, clinching the victory one round before the end of competition.

The titles provided the young chess master with further motivation and proved to her that she was capable of achieving great results. She also hopes that her results are an inspiration to young people to start playing chess.

Unuk is convinced that being successful at chess competitions requires a combination of various skills, with competitiveness the most important one. "It is important that you persist despite poor results, that you are mentally capable of overcoming all obstacles," she says.

This year she is aiming at the title of grandmaster, with only one of the three required norms separating her from the goal. In the long run, Unuk wants to become the women's world champion, and would like to compete for a title in the men's competition at some point. The idea is to prove that female players should not be underestimated.

"Men have always underestimated women in chess. They used to say that we are not as psychologically capable as them, that our nature prevents us from enduring for so long at the chessboard. But we have proven that we can beat men, that we can be fierce competition and that they need to be a little bit afraid of us."

The Ljubljana chess club, where she comes from, has been very supportive and is the place where she and her coach, grandmaster Matej Šebenik, are building plans for the future.

When she is preparing for competition, she practices nine hours a week with her coach and another hour each day at home. She also takes care of her physical fitness by running and lifting weights.

According to Unuk, chess is a very psychological game, but the history of chess has shown that physical fitness is exceptionally important as well. She has noticed that regular running and weightlifting sessions have improved her results at tournaments significantly.

The longest game she has ever played lasted almost six hours. "You start to make mistakes a true chess player must never allow to happen. In order to sit in the same position for that amount of time and at the same time think and calculate up to five moves in advance, one needs both mental and physical fitness."

While she is thinking about becoming a professional chess player, Unuk would like to go to university first. She wants to stay in Europe, which she believes has very well developed courses, while there are also numerous opportunities for employment.

However, European universities do not award chess fellowships like US universities, which is why she is currently thinking about moving to the US.

EU encourages youth mobility

The European Union encourages youth mobility and their studying and training abroad. The idea is to improve the employment prospects of youths, inter-cultural exchange, and access to new knowledge and language skills. Mobility is supported by the EU programme for education and training Erasmus+, which celebrated 30 years last year.

Learning mobility is one of the results of freedom being one of the fundamental values of the EU. The freedom of movement gives EU citizens the right to move and reside abroad freely.

The establishment of the European Higher Education Area (Bologna Process) has brought far-reaching changes in terms of studying and training abroad. The single organisational structure of the postgraduate, master's degree and doctoral studies, and better quality assurance, have increased the mobility of students and staff and strengthened the institutions and systems.

What also contributes to mutual trust, faster recognition of professional qualifications and greater mobility is the use of tools for European mobility and quality assurance, including the system of credit points, diploma supplements, and the European Quality Assurance Register.

Erasmus, probably the most successful and popular EU programme, provides direct support for all who want to study or train abroad, and for projects encouraging cross-border cooperation between higher education institutions. It has been called Erasmus+ since 2014.

"What always convinces me to persist in my work is this change - how young people get more mature, get to know themselves, become more courageous and daring, and change the world for our future," said the head of the Erasmus+ programme in Slovenia, Neža Pajnič.

In 2016, the EU earmarked EUR 2.2 billion for Erasmus+, supporting a total of 21,000 projects implemented by 79,000 organisations. A total of 725,000 people studied, taught, trained or volunteered abroad under Erasmus+ that year. France, Germany and Spain topped the list of sender countries, while Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom were the most popular host countries.

Countries with the highest number of Slovenians studying as part of the Erasmus 2007-2017 programme

A total of EUR 14.7 billion has been earmarked for the existing Erasmus+ programme for 2014-2020. The European Commission has estimated that EUR 29.4 billion will be earmarked for projects in the next budgetary period, 2021-2027.

The goal is to double the number of young people in the EU participating in Erasmus+. Their share is expected to increase from 3.7% to 7.5% by 2025.

Source: http://statistike.cmepius.si

The European Commission is determined to enhance the Erasmus programme by providing adequate funding as part of the negotiations on the next multi-year financing framework. Upon the 30th anniversary of Erasmus, the European Commission called on the Erasmus+ generation to a discussion on the future of the programme. The result of the discussion is a total of 30 recommendations on how to make Erasmus+ better.