Editor’s note: Chess in School programme is the favourite brainchild of sixth FIDE President. After his fellow countrymen elected Kirsan Ilyumzhinov as the first president of Kalmykia in 1993, his very first decree "On support of chess" introduced the teaching of chess as a separate subject in local schools.

This was the beginning of the introduction of chess education throughout the republic. Since then, this subject has been made compulsory in all schools and kindergartens in Kalmykia. Later, the global Chess in Schools programme was born from this initiative. In fact, this is the first step towards the implementation of Ilyumzhinov's global peacekeeping project "One Billion Chess Players means One Billion Smart People."