19.03.2016

The Path of Ilyumzhinov

A lot of children's events will be part of the Candidates Tournament: "Young Stars" tournament, the Moscow Chess Federation Cup on chess puzzles solving, team tournament on outdoor chess,  games of multiboard chess with the chess stars, "Chess Family" tournament, blitz open to all comers. Finally, those who are older will take part in the Cup of CFM among students.

All these events are closely connected with the "Chess in Schools" programme. Its initiator - the FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov - believes that chess in schools has a great future.

"The programme fits well into the school education and meets the needs of parents. Chess wins the competition with computer games among the children and it has the positive effect on the development of the child", he says.
The studies confirm that chess helps in the development of such characteristics of personality as the tendency to strategic planning, spatial thinking and endurance and makes children competitive in everyday life.
The programme's success is obvious. Chess is the compulsory subject in countries such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Hungary, Mexico, Spain, Slovenia and Paraguay. The Russian "Chess in Schools" fund is engaged in the development of the project. Chess is taught in Moscow, Kalmykia, KhMAO, Pskov, Kurgan, Tomsk, Ulyanovsk and Voronezh regions.
The first vice-president of CFM Nikita Kim said that the demand for the teaching of chess is enormous: "We started with the chess textbook, made in cooperation with the Russian design studio, because we see chess as not only an intelligent but also as a fashionable game.”
The project and the textbook were presented to the Russian leadership. The response was positive. As a result, the "Chess in Schools" drew the attention of big business. Today, the programme task is to conquer Russia and the whole world.
"Chess in Schools" is the rare project when all seem to be ready to help. We get support from the Departments of Education and Sports in Moscow. Grandmasters participate in master classes and games of multiboard chess. This year, we started in Moscow and immediately received more than 50 applications from schools. "We do our work complexly", stressed Nikita Kim. “We have made tutorials and conducted training courses for teachers. Our target is to ensure that the half of the capital's schools would teach chess".