2021 Superbet Chess Classic – Day 6 Recap
It was an exciting day of chess as Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Alexander Grischuk both won their games today to remain in the lead after Round 6 of the 2021 Superbet Chess Classic. The two leaders are currently on 4.0/6, while previous co-leader Wesley So is just a half-point behind with three rounds left to play. Vachier-Lagrave – Caruana An extremely sharp Neo-Moller Variation of the Ruy Lopez tested the opening preparation of both players, where Vachier-Lagrave was the first to slip, mixing up his move order in a critical position (18.f4 instead of 18.Rg5). Caruana spotted the opportunity to seize the initiative, but faltered a few moves later, allowing MVL back into the game. After Fabiano’s slip, neither player had chances to play for a win and a repetition was forced to draw the game. Mamedyarov – Aronian A surprising blunder from Aronian allowed Mamedyarov to win two pawns and achieve a virtually decisive advantage, with the safer king in addition to the extra material. Despite resistance from Aronian, the win was never in doubt and Mamedyarov won his second game of the event, moving to a +2 score. Aronian played 22…Re8, which allowed 23.Rxe8+ Bxe8 24.Bxf7! Deac – Radjabov A quiet 5.Re1 Berlin led to a symmetrical position out of the opening, with neither player able to create any real imbalance. After most of the pieces were traded off on the open e-file, the game was eventually drawn in an equal king and pawn endgame. Grischuk – Lupulescu In a complex Richter-Rauzer Sicilian Grischuk managed to pose some serious problems for Lupulescu, who made a strategic mistake with 17…Bb5, trading off light-squared bishops. After the trade of bishops, White was able to dominate the light-squares in the center, which soon led to material losses for Black. Facing a trade of queens into a hopeless endgame, Lupulescu resigned, giving Grischuk his second win of the event as well. So – Giri The last game of the day to finish saw Wesley So pressing his advantage for many moves in a slightly better endgame. Despite winning an extra pawn, So wasn’t able to generate much progress, as Giri defended with fantastic precision, keeping his pieces active throughout the endgame. The game was later drawn after all the pawns were finally traded off. The coverage of the 2021 Superbet Chess Classic continues Saturday, June 12, at 6:50 AM CDT with live coverage from GMs Alejandro Ramirez, Yasser Seirawan, and Maurice Ashley on grandchesstour.org/live. Text: IM Kostya Kavutskiy Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Official website: grandchesstour.org/
Queens’ Festival gets underway
The Queens’ Festival project kicked off on June 11 with an online ceremony featuring FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, FIDE Managing Director Dana Reizniece-Ozola, FIDE Vice President Lukasz Turlej and other speakers. The ceremony and the first seminar of the project were broadcast live on the FIDE YouTube channel. In his introductory speech FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich shared his support of the initiative: “My warm greetings on behalf of FIDE to all the participants and organizers of “The Queens’ Festival”. For us, it’s a special event. As you probably know, we announced 2022 – the year of women’s chess. It doesn’t mean that we will only pay attention to this very important trend for one year. We started doing big things already quite some time ago. We increased prizes in women’s tournaments, included more women in chess management, and we’ve just completed the Women’s Grand-Prix Series which was really important for us. Hopefully, this festival, seminars, important speeches and contributions, and, of course, chess events will create a positive image of women in chess for the months to come. It is crucial for us to continue this trend in a long-term perspective on a sustainable basis. We are happy that the International Olympic Committee supported us in this endeavour and contributed to the organization of this event. Please consider me my colleagues as your supporters.” FIDE Managing Director Dana Reizniece-Ozola shared her experience how to balance playing chess and making a career with family responsibilities: “Whenever somebody tells you that you have to choose either to have a family or to have your hobbies and career, don’t believe. You can have it all! I am one of the examples. Today I celebrate the 18th birthday of my eldest daughter, and I have four kids in total. At the same time I’ve managed to play chess, next week I am heading to another chess tournament. And I am also one of those ladies in the management of FIDE. Sometimes we feel we’re living in the men’s world and we do have kind of a “glass ceiling”. In these cases just remember that you have to explode like a supernova, to expand the borders of your universe and break the glass ceilings”. FIDE Events Commission chairman, co-organizer of the event Ozgur Solakoglu underlined that the chess tournaments held as a part of the Festival welcome female participants of all ages, rating and chess experience: “We wanted to inspire all women chess players regardless of their rating to play in a worldwide tournament. We have four continents participating in individual tournaments and then we will have an individual final, but we also have team tournaments where representatives of all rating categories will play. Even a 1500 Elo player can represent her country. We think this is very inspiring.” FIDE Vice President Lukasz Turlej talked about the geography of the project. He said that women from many countries have registered for the seminars of “The Queens’ Festival”: “When I was checking the statistics of the participants of the seminars, I found that we have people from 22 countries registered. This shows that many people are looking forward to such activities. I think this is a very good start before 2022 which will be the year of women in chess”. FIDE Women’s Commission chairman Eva Repkova: “This is a very ambitious project connecting women in chess around the world. This weekend we are starting with Africa and Asia. We already have 240 players from 40 countries registered for our tournaments. There are also many people interested in our side events. They will be held for 2 weeks, so I invite those who haven’t joined us yet, to do so. This is the first edition of «The Queens’ Festival» and we really hope to grow in the coming years. I would like to express our gratitude to FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich who supports women in chess very much and to FIDE management, continental federations, the International Olympic Committee, organizers, and arbiters for making this event possible.” The opening ceremony was followed by the seminar “Women in chess in Africa”. “We love chess and let’s keep pushing for what we love to do. There are so many opportunities but it requires us to take up the challenge.” It was the message to all chess girls and women from FIDE Women’s Commission member Susan Namangale who made a presentation. The project will last until June 27. Female players from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas will be able to participate in the Continental Online Blitz Qualification Tournaments and those who qualify will advance to the Queens’ Online Individual and Team Finals. For those interested in various chess-related topics, seminars and networking events with special guests will be held. To learn more about the program and to register for the events, please visit queensfestival.fide.com All the seminars and the final stage of the tournament will be broadcast live on the FIDE YouTube channel.
Magnus Carlsen to play in FIDE World Cup in Sochi
The reigning World Chess Champion will be one of the participants in the upcoming FIDE World Cup, to be played in Sochi from July 10 to August 6, 2021. For many players, the World Cup is the first and only opportunity to enter the race for the World Championship crown, since the two top finishers in the event will advance to the next stage: the super exclusive Candidates Tournament. This is even more true in the revamped 2021 edition, which will feature 206 participants (compared to 128 in previous editions), giving players from all over the globe an opportunity to prove their value. However, for the World Champion, the motivations are probably slightly different. Even if he loses his title in the FIDE World Championship match later this year in Dubai, Magnus would have a spot secured in the next edition of the Candidates Tournament, so he doesn’t need to take part in the qualifiers. But Magnus has never won a FIDE World Cup, despite being a firm supporter of knock-out tournaments. The champion probably wants to prove to the world, and to himself, that he can also excel in this format. His last participation, in Tbilisi 2017, was a bit disappointing: he was knocked out in round 3 by the Chinese Grandmaster Bu Xiangzhi. Besides, a record prize fund of $1,890,000 is incentive enough for the World Champion to be tempted and pick up the gauntlet to fight 206 grandmasters in this tough and highly-contested event. The World Cup is one of FIDE’s flagship competitions, and in recent editions, it has clearly become one of the most followed events in the chess calendar. The reigning World Champion, Women’s World Champion, and Junior World Champion are directly invited to the World Cup, as well as the four semi-finalists from the 2019 edition. They are joined by 80 players qualified through Continental Championships, with every continent being guaranteed a minimum quota, and 100 players nominated by the top hundred federations by average rating. The field is completed with the 12 highest-rated players who did not qualify by any of the previous criteria, as well as the highest-placed player of the ACP Tour 2021 as of June 2021. Magnus Carlsen will not cross paths in this event with his challenger for the 2021 FIDE World Chess Championship match, Ian Nepomniachtchi. The Russian star has declined to participate, in order to focus on his preparation for the match. More information: press@fide.comwww.fide.com Official FIDE World Cup 2021 website: https://worldcup.fide.com Photo: David Llada
Ziaur Rahman wins Asian Zonal 3.2 Hybrid Championship
GM Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh (pictured below) won the Asian Zonal Hybrid Chess Championship 2021(Zone 3.2) and earned a ticket to the FIDE World Cup 2021 that will take place in Sochi, Russia in July-August. The Asian Zonal Chess Championship 2021, the qualifying event for the FIDE World Chess Cup 2021 for South Asia was held from June 01-09, 2021 on the Tornelo platform. A total of 39 players from the South Asian countries of Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Maldives and Sri Lanka participated in the 9-round Swiss tournament. With the strength, India is considered as a single zone by FIDE giving a direct entry to the FIDE World cup. Photo: ChessBase India The Bangladesh Chess Federation conducted the event from Dhaka and the Sri Lankan Players played from the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka headquarters, Gangodawila, Nugegoda. GM Ziaur Rahman was heading to the final round a half-point ahead of his main rival and countryman GM Enamul Hossain who had better tiebreaks. Rahman drew a hard-fought game against his compatriot 11-year old Manon Reja Neer and scored 8 points total. Needing a full point to tie with him Hossain had to win his encounter with SL National Chess Champion Ranindu Dilshan Liyanage of Ananda College. Hossain sacrificed a pawn in the Sicilian Defence with Black and got positional compensation in form of a strong night against a bad bishop but hardly more. With careful play, Ranindu secured the third spot in the final standings, whereas his opponent had to settle for silver. Photo: asianchess.com The prize distribution and closing ceremony of the Zone 3.2 Zonal Hybrid Chess Championship sponsored by SAIF POWERTEC Limited were held at the Shapla Hall Room of Bangladesh Police Headquarter in Dhaka and also virtually on Zoom together with Awards for Zones 3.1 and 3.3 Hybrid Zonals. Dr. Benazir Ahmed, Inspector General of Bangladesh Police, and President of Bangladesh Chess Federation & South Asian Chess Council awarded the prizes as chief guests. Mr. Tarafder Md. Ruhul Amin, Managing Director of SAIF POWERTEC Limited and Vice President of Bangladesh Chess Federation was also present as a special guest. Final standings: 1 GM Rahman Ziaur BAN 2434 8 2 GM Hossain Enamul BAN 2402 7½ 3 CM Liyanage Ranindu Dilshan SRI 2203 6 4 CM Manon Reja Neer BAN 2130 6 5 IM Mohammad Fahad Rahman BAN 2314 6 6 FM Islam Khandaker Aminul BAN 2182 6 7 IM Mohammad Minhaz Uddin BAN 2278 6 8 CM Amarasinghe A A C B SRI 1873 6 9 FM Mehdi Hasan Parag BAN 2187 5½ 10 CM Zia Tahsin Tajwar BAN 2178 5½ Text: Luxman Wijesuriya, Luxman Wijesuriya, President of CFSL and Vice-President of Asian Chess Federation
2021 Superbet Chess Classic – Day 5 Recap
World No. 9 GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov scored the only victory of the day today as he defeated GM Constantin Lupulescu with the Black pieces, catching up to the leaders with a score of 3.0/5. With all four other games drawn, Mamedyarov, So, and Grischuk lead the event heading into the first and only rest day. Deac – So A theoretical pawn sacrifice in the QGD Vienna left Deac with a microscopic edge in a known rook endgame, but So was well-prepared and was able to equalize without any difficulties. The game soon simplified and the players drew after about 90 minutes of play. Radjabov – Grischuk This game also took place in a highly theoretical variation of the Queen’s Gambit Declined, where deep preparation by Grischuk allowed him to neutralize Radjabov’s efforts to play for an advantage. Despite White’s extra exchange, Radjabov could not make any progress, and the game quickly simplified into a dead-drawn position. Caruana – Giri Facing the ultra-solid Berlin Variation, Caruana opted for the rare move 9.Qe2, which is not considered dangerous for Black but does come with some surprise value. With a pawn majority on the kingside for White, Giri had to be careful not to allow too many exchanges and end up in a losing king and pawn endgame. Despite going into a somewhat tricky rook ending, Giri managed to defend accurately and eventually held a draw thanks to his precise play. Aronian – Vachier-Lagrave The players started out with a Symmetrical English, though the game quickly became imbalanced as Aronian took on an isolated queen pawn in exchange for active piece play in the middlegame. Although MVL was able to win the weak pawn almost immediately, White had full compensation for the sacrifice, and soon Black was forced to give the pawn back in order to equalize. Aronian kept some pressure all the way into the endgame, and eventually even won an extra pawn of his own, but the position was too simplified to provide any real chances, and MVL held the draw without huge difficulty. Lupulescu – Mamedyarov In the only decisive game of the day, an enterprising approach to the opening paid off for Mamedyarov, as he was able to reach a fresh and unbalanced position with chances for both sides. After quite a bit of strategic maneuvering in the middlegame, the players started running low on time as they approached the first time control, with Mamedyarov beginning to outplay Lupulescu. On move 33 Mamedyarov found his chance to open up the position, seizing an opportunity to triple his heavy pieces on the g-file. With little time Lupulescu missed a devious tactical detail, and his kingside simply collapsed just a few moves later. After 33…e5! Black opened up his rook on d6 to access the g-file With a rest day tomorrow, June 10, Round 6 will take place on Friday, June 11. The coverage of the 2021 Superbet Chess Classic continues Friday, June 11, at 6:50 AM CDT with live coverage from GMs Alejandro Ramirez, Yasser Seirawan, and Maurice Ashley on grandchesstour.org/live. Text: IM Kostya Kavutskiy Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Official website: grandchesstour.org/
PhosAgro and FIDE sign strategic partnership
Moscow, June 09, 2021 PhosAgro, one of the world’s leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers, and the International Chess Federation (FIDE) have signed a strategic partnership. The contract was signed by the President of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), chairman of the Skolkovo Foundation Arkady Dvorkovich and PhosAgro CEO Andrey Guryev in the Mikhail Botvinnik Central Chess Club in Moscow. Photo credits: Eteri Kublashvili, Chess Federation of Russia President of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), chairman of the Skolkovo Foundation Arkady Dvorkovich thanked PhosAgro for the long-term partnership, stressing that the company uses an integrated approach to popularizing chess as a sport: “First of all, I would like to once again congratulate PhosAgro on its 20th anniversary. We can no longer imagine the World Championship Match without such a partner as PhosAgro, and I am glad that this year the company is again a partner of the World Championship Match and, no less important, FIDE World Cups, which will be held in July-August in Sochi. I believe that this is another proof of the company’s commitment to chess, its support of the Russian school and the development of chess in the world. The partnership promises to be fruitful in terms of supporting the younger generation of chess players, both in Russia and around the world. This time, the World Championship Match will be held in Dubai as a part of the World EXPO, which will bring together the best minds not only of the chess world but also of politics, business, and technology. I think this is fully consistent with the values and the expertise that the International Chess Federation and PhosAgro both possess.” The partnership between International Chess Federation (FIDE) and PhosAgro includes such major FIDE events as the WorldChampionship Match in Dubai and FIDE World Cups in Sochi. Photo credits: Eteri Kublashvili, Chess Federation of Russia “Chess has become a traditional corporate game for us, a part of our corporate culture. This year the company celebrates its 20th anniversary, and for 11 years we have been supporting the Chess Federation of Russia. We are also sponsoring the World Chess Championships and the qualifying tournaments for them. This signing ceremony has become traditional: chess is gaining popularity in our country and around the world and requires proper support from business. Chess and PhosAgro have a lot in common: we always think one move ahead, or rather two or three moves, to outperform our competitors. It is important for PhosAgro to support Russian chess and Russian chess players, and our main goal is to bring the world chess crown back to Russia.” emphasized PhosAgro CEO Andrey Guryev. About PhosAgro: PhosAgro Group is the undisputed leader in the supply of fertilizers to the Russian market and is one of the three largest producers of phosphate-based fertilizers in the world. PhosAgro’s main products include phosphate rock, 39 grades of fertilizers, feed phosphates, ammonia and sodium tripolyphosphate, which are used by customers in 102 countries across all inhabited continents of the world. The Company’s priority markets outside of Russia and the CIS are Latin America, Europe and Asia. The Company has been the general partner of the Chess Federation of Russia (CFR) since 2010. PhosAgro CEO Andrey Guryev is a Vice-President of the CFR and a member of its Board of Trustees. PhosAgro is also a strategic partner of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) in the Grand Prix series of the World Chess Championship in 2019−2020. PhosAgro has sponsored the matches for the World Chess Champion title in Sochi, New York and London, as well as the qualifying stages of the world championship cycle – Candidates Tournament in Berlin (2018) and Yekaterinburg (2020-2021) and the Grand Prix in Moscow (2017). At the same time, PhosAgro continues to promote chess in the regions where it operates by opening chess classes in Company-supported schools and kindergartens and funding the training of specialised teachers. Official site: phosagro.com
2021 Superbet Chess Classic – Day 4 Recap
Round 4 of the 2021 Superbet Chess Classic saw two new leaders emerge, as Wesley So and Alexander Grischuk both won their games against the previous day’s leaders, Fabiano Caruana and Bogdan-Daniel Deac. With the three other games drawn, So and Grischuk now lead the field with 2.5/4, heading into the halfway mark of the tournament. Mamedyarov – Radjabov The first game of the round to finish, a quick draw in the Fianchetto Grunfeld, which was not much of a surprise as the two Olympic teammates have drawn almost all of their games at the top level. After the game, Radjabov expressed a lack of energy to come up with new ideas in the opening, citing his busy schedule and preference to minimize risk. Vachier-Lagrave – Lupulescu A critical variation of the French Defense put Lupulescu’s preparation to the test, but the Romanian No. 1 managed to defend accurately, reaching an equal endgame soon out of the opening. The Frenchman tried to press, even sacrificing a pawn for some play but was ultimately not able to pose real problems, and the game was drawn in an equal knight vs. bishop ending. Giri – Aronian After misplaying the Black side of a Catalan, Levon Aronian was under some serious pressure in a thematic endgame, with Giri’s pieces dominating Black’s queenside. But Giri was not able to maximize his advantage, allowing Aronian to equalize with passive but solid defense, eventually holding the draw. So – Caruana In one of the best games of the tournament thus far, Wesley So found a creative pawn sacrifice to greatly restrict several of Black’s pieces. While Caruana’s position was tenable, it was difficult to defend from a practical point of view, and the U.S. No. 1 quickly fell into a strategically lost position. Good technique by Wesley took matters into the endgame, with an extra pawn and overwhelming positional advantage, allowing So to win his first game of the event. Grischuk – Deac Also scoring his first win of the event was Grischuk, who nursed a small edge out of the opening against the talented Romanian junior. With both players in severe time trouble, Grischuk managed to win a pawn in a heavy-piece endgame and was able to convert in excellent technical style. After 59.Qf8! Rf4 60.Rxf4 gxf4 61.Qa8! Alexander secured a decisive advantage The coverage of the 2021 Superbet Chess Classic continues tomorrow, June 9, at 7:00 AM CDT with live coverage from GMs Alejandro Ramirez, Yasser Seirawan, and Maurice Ashley on grandchesstour.org/live. Text: IM Kostya Kavutskiy Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Official website: grandchesstour.org/
Ehsan Ghaem Maghami wins Zone 3.1 Championship
Ehsan Ghaem Maghami (pictured below) became the winner of Zone 3.1 Championship and secured his spot in FIDE World Cup 2021. Ehsan scored 6 out of 7 possible points and tied for first place with his countryman Aryan Gholami but came out on top thanks to better tiebreaks (higher average rating of his opponents). Photo: David Llada The 7-round Swiss tournament brought together 23 players from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman and Palestina and was played online on Tornelo platform. The competition was dominated by the representatives of Iran, who took three top spots in the final standings. Final standings: 1 GM Ghaem Maghami, Ehsan IRI 2547 6 2 GM Gholami, Aryan IRI 2513 6 3 GM Idani, Pouya IRI 2614 5½ 4 FM Salih Akar Ali, Salih IRQ 2274 4½ 5 FM Koniahli, Malek SYR 2255 4½ 6 IM Mansour, Sameer JOR 2308 4 7 FM Ahmed Ali Layth, Ahmed IRQ 2253 4 8 Chekh Adm Khedr, Aram SYR 2147 4 9 CM Ismael Namir Mohammed IRQ 2122 4 10 IM Al Hosani, Omran UAE 2197 4
2021 Superbet Chess Classic – Day 3 Recap
Despite a quiet start to the round with two short draws, the action quickly heated up as Levon Aronian secured an edge against Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri looked to be on the initiative against Lupulescu. Aronian’s advantage was eventually liquidated, while Giri ended up overpressing the attack, and soon blundered into a vicious counterattack from the Romanian No 1. After three rounds, Caruana and Deac remain tied for first with 2.0/3, with six rounds left to play. Radjabov – Vachier-Lagrave In a repeat of Grischuk – Vachier-Lagrave from Round 1, Radjabov utilized the same drawish line in the 8.Rb1 Grunfeld to force a draw by repetition against MVL. This caused some dissatisfaction among fans, though it was mentioned on the broadcast that Radjabov was not feeling well during today’s round. Grischuk – So A rare move (14.g5) by Grischuk put Wesley So under some pressure in the Berlin Endgame, but So kept his cool and found a precise path to equalize. Having no advantage, Grischuk repeated moves, and the game was soon drawn. Aronian – Caruana Aronian was able to outplay Caruana in a Queen’s Gambit Accepted, securing a strategic advantage thanks to his powerful bishop on d5. Although according to Caruana his position was “sad”, he was able to slowly neutralize White’s pressure with correct exchanges, eventually trading down into a drawn queen and rook endgame. Deac – Mamedyarov A solid game for the Romanian junior, who held a bit of an edge in an endgame arising from the Catalan, with a slightly superior bishop against Mamedyarov’s knight. However, Mamedyarov defended well and didn’t give any chances to Deac, who notably defeated MVL the day before. The game was drawn shortly after the first time control. Lupulescu – Giri In the only decisive game of the day, it was at first Anish Giri who was playing for the advantage in the middlegame, having given up the bishop pair in exchange for good control over the central light squares. While Giri’s attack looked promising, Constantin Lupulescu was able to defend with high accuracy, not giving Anish any chances on the kingside. After some exchanges, it was Giri who ended up worse, with his heavy pieces misplaced and unprepared for White’s play in the center. A further blunder in time-trouble gave Lupulescu a golden opportunity for a decisive attack against Black’s king, which he quickly pounced on, winning the game. Lupulescu played 33.Re8!, with forced mate against Black’s king The coverage of the 2021 Superbet Chess Classic continues tomorrow, June 8, at 7:00 AM CDT with live coverage from GMs Alejandro Ramirez, Yasser Seirawan, and Maurice Ashley on grandchesstour.org/live. Text: IM Kostya Kavutskiy Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Official website: grandchesstour.org/
Chess in Schools Survey 2020: First conclusions and takeaways
In the summer of 2020, FIDE and the ECU joined forces to take a survey on what Chess in Schools (CiS) looks like in the world. The information gathered would inform the next step, that of suggesting an operational, marketing, and financial plan for FIDE for Chess in Schools for 2021-2025. The group working with the survey, people from FIDE, ECU, and the Armenian Institute, chose the broader definition of Chess in Schools: chess in a school environment. All 190 federations under the umbrella of FIDE were contacted, as well as major CiS – organisations, and asked to complete a survey of 17 questions in Survey Monkey to get a statistical foundation. The next steps were to structure the statistics, make a report, select especially interesting countries and projects, and make interviews with those involved to get a deeper understanding. This final report will be presented in a seminar that includes the supervisory group of the project as well as members of FIDE EDU and ECU EDU. After that, the survey report will be given to a group responsible for creating the strategic plan for FIDE EDU for 2021-2025. This survey is likely the largest of its kind with 196 respondents, out of which were 135 federations, 39 CiS-organisations, and 22 private and public schools. According to the survey, currently, there are 25,600,000 children participating in chess activities in a school environment. Of that number, 15,000,000 of them are children in India, 5,000,000 in China, and 5,600,000 from the rest of the world. There are 92,550 schoolteachers and 145,690 instructors from outside the school providing chess instruction and programming around the world. Overview of Responses Number of Responses 196 Number of Countries Responding 152 Number of Federations/Countries Not Responding 42 Number of Students Participating in Some Form of Chess Activity in a School Setting About 25,373,339* Number of Countries with More Than 10000 Children Participating in Some Form of Chess Activity in a School Setting 37 Number of Teachers About 92,550 Number of Chess Coaches About 145,690 Number of Countries Using Software 98 Number of Countries with Qualifications for Teaching Chess in Schools 78 Number of Countries That Used Official Data to Estimate the Facts They Provided in This Survey 44 Number of Countries That Used Data from Research to Estimate the Facts They Provided in This Survey 20 * We should take into account that the vast majority of children participating in chess instruction in school are from India and China. 15,000,000 according to the survey response from India. 5,000,000 according to the survey response from China. It is important to note that the data collected is not precise from the standpoint of a researcher conducting a rigorous scientific study. Responders to the survey often offered their best guesses as to the state of chess in education in their country. Many of these estimates are likely to be underestimated while a few may be inflated. Still, the survey does represent a good first glimpse of the worldwide state of chess in schools. Based on the data obtained, the respondents consider FIDE as the main sponsor for the development of the chess education model. For Institutionalized (centralized with support and recognition from the government, often compulsory, with a national curriculum) and Diversity (decentralized with a variety of ways in how chess is used and how chess instruction is given ) models, FIDE’s potential for helping with the development of chess education is considered in the area of the development of support for teachers’ training. This help may include the following: Provision of feedback to teachers Identification of teachers’ needs and suggestions, for example, organizing a forum for the exchange of ideas between schoolteachers Promotion of outstanding teachers of the world and their involvement in the process of introducing educational chess Introduction of preschool chess education Identification of reference schools with good chess teaching practices and disseminating their experience Distribution of training materials, advertising brochures, videos in different languages Respondents pointed out the need to work with national governments to spread chess education and sponsor teacher training as well as to build bridges between educational and sport chess. The issue of the necessity for certification was perceived ambiguously by different respondents. The issue of certification, in the opinion of some respondents, should be assigned to the national Ministries of Education. In some cases, there was a proposal of the necessity for additional interaction between FIDE and local state bodies in order to avoid conflicts that could hinder the development of chess education (Singapore). The Diversity Model was characterized by an emphasis on material assistance, for example, in sponsoring technical means to conduct online classes with outstanding teachers (India). Helping disadvantaged Asian and African countries, as well as a desire for help in transferring educational excellence, was noted in China. For the Less Institutionalized Model (the countries with either underdeveloped chess in schools’ movements struggling with little or no funding or no federation involvement or centralization), the following suggestions were more relevant: Lobbying the government to recognize chess as a school subject (including at the European Union level) Accreditation of training courses Development of publicly available training programs Provision of training courses online Help in popularizing chess, advertising for teachers, schools, politicians Holding a conference with UNESCO for politicians, educators’ organizations and others Financial support Model of Chess Education in Countries That Participated in Follow-up Interviews Institutionalized Model Diversity Model Less Institutionalized Model* Andalusia (Spain) Buenos Aires, (Argentina) Finland Aragon (Spain) San Luis (Argentina) France Armenia Andorra England Catalonia (Spain) India USA Santa Fe (Argentina) China Zambia Uruguay Singapore Iceland Sweden FIDE-ECU CiS Survey Final Report (pdf)