On November 28, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov arrived in Tashkent. His visit schedule includes a meeting with the government officials and taking part in the opening ceremony of the children's chess festival in the capital of Uzbekistan.Ilyumzhinov and Minister of Public Education, President of Uzbekistan Chess Federation Ulugbek Inoyatov discussed the possibility of opening a chess faculty in one of Uzbekistan universities and gradual introduction of chess as a mandatory discipline in schools curriculum.
Organization of courses for primary school teachers at the Republican Institute for Advanced Training was also discussed. According to the Minister, there are 10,000 schools in Uzbekistan including 300 in Tashkent alone and a chess boom is underway: children play chess everywhere.
The Minister noted that there are more than a thousand chess trainers in Uzbekistan. Teachers’ workbooks and tutorials for schoolchildren have already been prepared. Chess has already been included as a third lesson into three subjects of school curriculum: physical education, mathematics and computer science.
Further steps of cooperation were outlined at a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister, President of NOC of Uzbekistan Alisher Sultanov and Chairman of the State Committee for Physical Culture and Sports Rustambek Kurbanov. It was noted that there are branches of Republican Chess School in all regions where 360 most gifted children of Uzbekistan study.
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov expressed his gratitude to the interlocutors for their support of his candidacy in the upcoming FIDE presidential elections in 2018. He congratulated the Uzbek side on the outstanding achievement of Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who became the youngest grandmaster in history at the age of 13. To date, he is the youngest holder of this title and has the highest rating among his peers.
Head of FIDE also suggested considering the possibility of Uzbekistan submitting an application for holding the World Chess Olympiad in 2024 and the World Cup in 2023.
In Tashkent, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov met with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to Uzbekistan Vladimir Turdenev. The meeting resulted in an agreement with the Uzbekistan Chess Federation on sending students to study chess in the Russian Federation.
