Léo Battesti

Léo Battesti was born in Bastia. He earned a Master of Law at Université Paris-Sorbonne. He served as General Secretary of Corsican Students (CSC) from 1976 to 1978, in Nice.

Battesti was a founding member of the National Liberation Front of Corsica, a year after having partaken in the Aléria events in 1975. He was imprisoned at La Santé Prison from 1978 to 1981 for his militant activities, and developed a fascination with chess after overhearing two imprisoned KGB spies playing it in morse code. He was amnestied in 1981 by President François Mitterrand, and disavowed militancy as a method of achieving Corsican independence.[1]

He worked as a journalist from 1981 to 1992, chief Editor of a Corsican weekly.

He was elected to the Corsican Assembly twice, in 1986 and 1988, and served until 1992. He first served as a member of Muvimentu Corsu per l'Autodeterminazione[2] before later joining A Cuncolta Naziunalista,[3] both Corsican nationalist parties led by Alain Orsoni. In his capacity as a member of the Corsican Assembly, was vice-president of the Culture and Sports Commission from 1990 to 1992. He was also Bastia town council member from 1988 to 1992.

He is vice-president of French Chess Federation[4] since January 2005, in charge of communication and thus, chief-editor of the quarterly "Échec & Mat".

On 16 June 2012, Battesti launched a bid to the election of the Presidency of the French Chess Federation.[5] This bid sparked a debate on one side with a certain enthusiasm from aficionados who are amazed by the spectacular success of chess in Corsica. Whose dithyrambic échecsinfos.com[6] And on the other side, measured circumspection, which worries about a democratic deficit for some time in the organs of the FFE directional. With for example the blog of Christophe Bouton: échecs 64.[7] A decision also shows the extreme delicacy of Mr. Leonard Battesti regarding conflict resolution has been given in the last international open chess Corsica in 2011 and led to the exclusion of Iranian player; Ghaem Maghami that refused to play against an Israeli player ... A summary of the event at chess vibes.[8] And a comment bittersweet by Steve Giddin on his chess blog.[9]