The State Duma proposed to popularize intellectual sports in Russia. "The number of people involved in intellectual sports depends on the authorities," said a member of the State Duma Committee on Physical Culture and Sports, Tourism and Youth Affairs Marat Bariev. According to the parliamentarian, chess was promoted in Kalmykia by first president of the republic and sixth FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. According to the deputy, chess and checkers need to be popularized at the all-Russian level. Since September 1, 2019, the Ministry of Education has made chess a subject in many schools. Russian first-graders now study chess for 33 hours a year, students in the second and fourth grades do it for an hour more.Let us remind you that in Russia the issues of chess education were raised back in 1994, when chess became an official elective in elementary school. 2015 was marked by a new round of government attention to chess education: at the end of March, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev instructed the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation to study and support the educational initiative of sixth FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov on introducing general chess education in Russian secondary schools. It should be noted that the Chess in Schools programme is the favourite brainchild of sixth FIDE President. As you know, after his compatriots elected Kirsan Ilyumzhinov as the first president of Kalmykia in 1993, he introduced the teaching of chess as a separate subject in local schools with his first decree "On state support of chess". Recently Kirsan Ilyumzhinov spoke about another remarkable idea of his: “I am increasingly convinced that non-professional chess players, chess amateurs need their own organization focused specifically on spreading chess and protecting the interests of chess lovers. In the future, we propose to establish the International Association of Chess Amateurs. Such a uniting millions alliance would become a powerful force that is difficult to ignore. And this work, of course, should be started from Russia. In 2019, the results of a sociological survey conducted on the eve of International Chess Day (celebrated on July 20), proved that more than half of the Russians consider themselves chess lovers. By the way, in the course of the research, chess amateurs were asked why they were so attracted to chess. The most popular answer was "You have to think." Probably, this is exactly what all people on the planet need today,” Ilyumzhinov said.
