Italian Chess Federation celebrates its centenary
Exactly 100 years and seven days ago, the bells of the churches of the Italian city of Varese rang to break the news: Luigi Miliani had just announced the foundation of the Italian Chess Federation (FSI).
More than 60 players representing 19 chess clubs had gathered in this city for the Congress of Italian Chess Players (September 18-20, 1920). The statutes of FSI were approved and Luigi Milani was elected its first President, a position he would hold (with a brief hiatus in 1924) until his death in 1944.
The inaugural session of the Congress took place in the beautiful upper hall of the Chamber of Commerce, which was granted for the occasion. Subsequent meetings were held at the "Caffè Principale" located at the Vittorio Emanuele avenue.
Italy was celebrating the 50 anniversary of its unification ("Risorgimento"), and the I World War had just concluded. "There was a great desire for unity, in addition to the desire to build something lasting", explains Adolivio Capece in this article [in Italian].
Of course, whenever a group of chess lovers meets somewhere for a couple of days, they end up organizing a tournament, and that was also the case in Varese. There was also a problem-solving competition and a simultaneous exhibition by Leone Singer.
Back then many small towns didn't have a chess club, and for many of these gentlemen, correspondence chess was the only opportunity to compete with other players of a certain strength. The gathering in Varese was a very special occasion, and the meetings were held in a festive atmosphere among colleagues.
Auguri, FSI!
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ChessMatec free Workshop
In one of our previous issues, we announced that FIDE has recently entered a cooperation agreement with ChessMatec, an all-in-one chess learning platform. This Thursday (October 1), the creators of this app will offer an online workshop to demonstrate its main features and will discuss the educative aspects of their tool.
The workshop, open to everyone and free of charge, will take place at 17:00 CET. In order to register, please send an email to ariela@chessmatec.com with copy to marketing@fide.com.
This workshop might be of special interest to chess teachers, since "ChessMatec for Teachers" offers multi-student support and includes a Classroom Management solution that allows teachers to easily create classrooms, import students, and see helpful metrics.
ChessMatec is currently available in English, Russian, Spanish, French, German, Turkish, Dutch, Polish, and Italian. Thanks to the agreement FIDE, you can now enjoy a 50% discount on yearly purchases of ChessMatec, simply visiting their website* and clicking on the "Buy Now" button.
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October 1
17:00 CET |
*(Important: the offer won't apply if you buy the app from the Apple or the Google Play stores)
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Nilufar Yakubbaeva (1st), Umida Omonova (2nd) and Yuliya Khegay (3rd)
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Brief news from National Federations
UZBEKISTAN
The 2020 Uzbekistani Championship was very atypical. First, because it started in March, but had to be postponed after five rounds due to the epidemiological situation. The championship was resumed in fall, with the four final rounds played on September 21-24 in Tashkent. The second curiosity is the fact that the championships were won by two siblings: Nodirbek Yakubboev and Nilufar Yakubboeva. Although Nodirbek is just 18 years old, this is his third national title, having previously won this event in 2016 and 2018. The champion scored 7½/8, conceding only a draw against the runner up, Shamsiddin Vokhidov. Nodirbek's elder sister, 20-year-old WIM Nilufar Yakubbaeva clinched her second national title in a row. After netting 7½ out of 9, she finished a full point ahead of Umida Omova who took silver.
More information: www.fide.com/news/753
SRI LANKA
Ranindu Liyanage, a 16-year old schoolboy from Ananda College in Colombo, has been crowned as the National Chess Champion. Ranindu, who played an excellent сhess through the event, finished with a score of 10½/13.
Nethmi Fernando of Girls High School clinched the title of Sri Lanka Women’s National Chess Champion scoring 10/13. After an impressive start 6½ points out of 7 she lost two consecutive games, but then came back strongly in the last four rounds and clinched the title.
More info: www.fide.com/news/746.
NATIONAL TEAM LEAGUES
Baden-Baden is the winner of the 2020 Bundesliga, which can be considered the first top “over the board” event since the coronavirus outbreak. It is hardly a surprise that a club that features Fabiano Caruana, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Levon Aronian on the top three boards, wins a team competition for the 14th time in 15 years. However, the club Viernheim, led by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, was a very serious contender this time. Both teams went into their last round clash with a perfect score, so the winner was decided by a victory by the minimum margin in their direct encounter. Erwin l’Ami, Richard Rapport and the “Wunderkind” Vincent Keymer (15-year-old) were the great animateurs of the championship.
More info: www.schachbund.de
CSU Targoviste has won the Romanian league, held in Pecica, September 21 – 25. The championship is a round-robin competition between five teams, played over six boards. Three teams tied for first -CSU Targoviste, ACS Pheonix Buzau, and CS Otopeni-, but Tagoviste was declared the winner thanks to having scored more game points.
More info: http://frsah.ro
The Spanish first league, or “Division the Honor”, is currently undergoing in Linares. After four rounds, Club Ajedrez Silla - Bosch Serinsys, with Anton Korobov and Alexei Shirov defending the top boards, leads ahead of Magic Extremadura.
More info: https://info64.org
ELECTIONS
On September 21, Javier Ochoa has been reelected as the President of the Spanish Chess Federation, a position he has held since 1997. Ochoa is also President of the Iberoamerican Chess federation (FIBDA).
Angola Chess Federation held elections this weekend, with Tito Correia Martins being reelected for a second 4-year term. The voting took place over video conference.
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"Chess connects us"
When Judit Polgar announced her retirement at the Tromsø Chess Olympiad in 2014, many fans were shocked. She was not only the strongest female player in history but also one of the most charismatic chess players of our time and everybody’s favorite.
The world lost a terrific player, but fortunately, we won an outstanding chess ambassador. Barely one year later, Judit Polgar launched the first edition of the “Global Chess Festival”, one of the biggest celebrations of the diversity of chess, with a complete program of activities.
The 6th edition, which will take place on October 10, has just been announced. Like many other activities in 2020, it will run mainly on an online platform, but some programs will take place at the Hungarian National Gallery like in previous years. Tournaments, talks on chess and its relation to sports, sciences, arts and education, surprise guests, exclusive chess films as well as chess puzzles, coding games, and chess math for kids. Organizers from all around the world are invited to join online with their own chess events on the same day, offering more publicity and enabling networking. Last year’s festival, had joint events in 30 different countries worldwide across multiple locations and was attended by thousands of international visitors, who took part in the vast variety of events in the course of the day.
The motto of the Festival will be once again “Chess connects us”. This has long been Judit Polgar’s personal belief and the guiding idea behind the festival.
One of the most important aspects of the tournaments of the Global Chess Festival is the fact that girls and boys get equal opportunities by playing in the same group. In this crucial mission for gender equality, Judit Polgar found a partner in the festival’s main sponsor, Morgan Stanley. For years, the company has invested heavily in the development of mathematics, science, and technology education in the country, and has paid particular attention to equal opportunities and to enable girls to achieve a future in these fields.
You can find more information and a complete program of activities at www.globalchessfestival.com.
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Roman Prymula, FIDE Master and newly appointed Czech Minister of Health
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Who wants to be a Minister?
Politics is a topic we don't usually touch in our publications, and for all the good reasons: sports and politics should not mix.
However, today we will make a well-justified exception to celebrate that some members of the chess community are reaching new heights in their field, or are taking the first steps in a new promising career path.
Last week, FIDE Master Roman Prymula was appointed the new Czech Minister of Health. His 2172 rating is a minor achievement compared to his reputation as a leading epidemiologist, a field in which he is considered one of the highest authorities in Europe. Roman has served as a member of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) management board, and as Chairman of the Central European Vaccination Awareness Group.
Roman as also been the Czech Republic's government commissioner for science and research in healthcare, and he has headed the country's coronavirus task force since the early phase of the outbreak. Back then, the World Senior Team Chess Championship had just started in Prague, and Prymula's offered invaluable support to the organizing team, getting personally involved and going the extra mile to ensure the wellbeing of all the participants. We want to thank him one more time for his efforts and wish him all the best in his new position during these challenging times.
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Another Minister in the making? One of the most talented and charismatic young players, Zhansaya Abdumalik from Kazakhstan, has just started his political career. And she is not shy about her ambitions: "In the future, I plan to become the Minister of Sports. I’m sure I have good chances", she told FIDE this weekend.
A chess prodigy who twice won the World Youth Chess Championships in her age and gender category, Zhansaya joined a political party as soon as she turned 18. Now, two years later, she is taking part in the primaries, the intra-party elections of the ruling party in Kazakhstan. "My electoral program is aimed at the development of intellectual sports and youth policy," explains Zhansaya. Supporting talented youth from low-income families, and fighting the brain drain that suffers Kazakhstan, are two of the first points in her program.
For now, she plans to keep her political activities from interfering in her chess career, but in the future, she sees herself working full time in politics and is ready to make the switch when the right time comes.
Zhansaya follows the footsteps of other chess players turned into full-time politicians. Some examples are WGM Dana Reizniece, who served as minister of Economics (2014–2016) and minister of Finance (2016–2019) of the Republic of Latvia, and GM Viktorija Cmilyte, Member of the Lithuanian Parliament (since 2015). Of course, on top of the list among prominent chess players, we find the former World Champion Anatoly Karpov: he was a Deputy in the USSR (1989-1991), a member of the Public Chamber of Russia (since 2005), and in 2011 he became a Deputy of the State Duma of Russia as a representative of Tyumen Oblast.
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Bringing chess to public spaces
Jesus Medina, from The Netherlands, is not your average chess fan: he taught himself how to play when he was already 46. With a professional background in IT and tourism, he also holds a Bachelor's degree in Education. When his older daughter was in primary school she was struggling with mathematics, and he thought that chess might help her to improve her calculation skills. “So I taught myself how to play watching Youtube tutorials, and then I taught her”.
The plan worked out pretty well. “Her ability to concentrate improved a lot, and that, combined with remedial classes, helped her to build up her math skills”. The experience was so positive that Jesus took a strong interest in attracting more children to the game.
“We all know the educational benefits of chess. If we want more kids to be exposed to chess, we have to make chess accessible, make it visible in those places where kids play: in city parks, squares, and schoolyards,” he explains. “You can't want something if you don't know that it exists. A lot of kids don't play chess at home, or at school. They might not know that chess exists. By seeing chess tables in parks and squares, they will want to know more about the game, they'll want to play it.”
With this idea in mind, in 2018 he launched “Urban Chess”, a social initiative in the Netherlands to place public chess tables in city parks. In March that year, the first three public tables were inaugurated in Máxima Park in Utrecht. Two and a half years later, 17 Dutch municipalities have followed, and his initiative has received words of endorsement from chess personalities like Anish Giri, as well as Judit and Susan Polgar.
“The structural Urban Chess approach can be copied in other countries as well”, explains Jesus. “I try to motivate people locally to reach out to their municipalities, and I guide them on how to proceed. I explain to chess enthusiasts how they can approach their city council and advise about the right communication: which arguments they should use, which ones they should better not”.
He gives an example: “If you want this to work out, your approach with the authorities shouldn’t be ‘I want to promote chess’, but rather ‘we want to create social cohesion’ or ‘we want to promote an activity that helps in fighting brain decline’. That’s the idea that will appeal to them”.
Jesus also offers advice on the financial part: how the costs can be covered, who and how they can approach for funding. “I highlight the importance of a 'programming first' approach: we plan certain activities that will take place around the chess tables, like workshops, simuls, charity events… We use this plan towards the city council to demonstrate that we have put some thought on it, that we have a plan and we will make sure that the chess tables will be used”.
Jesús has a very active Twitter account and a website in English. You can also reach him via email: jcmedinamolina@gmail.com.
www.medinamolina.com/chesstables
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Anniversaries
Today, Aleksandra Yuryevna Goryachkina turns 22 years old. She is a two-time Russian Women's Chess Champion and was also twice World Girls Under-20 Champion. In 2019, she qualified for Women's World Championship 2020 after winning Women's Candidates Tournament in Kazan, and in January this year she played a thrilling match against Ju Wenjun that had to be decided in a playoff.
Some other upcoming anniversaries are Samuel Shankland (Oct-1), Jonathan Speelman (Oct-2), Levon Aronian (Oct-6), and Ruslan Ponomariov (Oct-11).
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