FIDE praises training of young Kazakhstani chess players

President of the International Chess Federation Arkady Dvorkovich, has highly praised the idea of introducing chess into the school curriculum and the way chess players are trained in Kazakhstan. He discussed a comprehensive plan for chess development in the country until 2027 with President of KazChess Timur Turlov.

During their tour, Turlov and Dvorkovich visited Astana School No. 8, where KazChess opened a chess class in April this year as part of the «Chess in Education» project, implemented in conjunction with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and local authorities. Under the project, at least 20% of primary school students in Kazakhstan are expected to receive chess training. Students of 42 primary schools in seven regions have already studied chess since 2023. The project participants have identified 742 schools in 19 regions that may potentially join the project. KazChess plans to launch chess training in 350 more educational facilities.

«Introducing chess in education is another way to select and develop talents and to popularize the game we all love so much. At FIDE, we highly appreciate KazChess’s intention to advance in this direction,» Dvorkovich said.

He also noted that the Kazakhstani Chess Federation is heavily involved in chess development across the country. As a result, it is not uncommon for Kazakhstani chess players to win various tournaments, he highlighted.

According to Turlov, the federation and its partners have not only introduced chess as an educational subject but have also provided some equipment for classrooms, prepared learning content for first-grade students and developed Chess Class, an online platform for methodological support to schools. Furthermore, a new training course for teachers is expected to be rolled out once it is approved by the Ministry of Education. The 72-hour academic course is designed to be taught both online and offline in Kazakh and Russian languages.

At the end of August, KazChess and FIDE plan to hold an international conference on the topic of chess in education. KazChess expects experts from Spain, the U.S., Hungary, Armenia and Turkey to come to Kazakhstan to share their experiences with more than 100 teachers and heads of educational facilities. The federation already held a similar event in April.

Another joint project with FIDE is the Freedom Asian Chess Initiative. This project aims to promote chess in Asian countries with the help of Kazakhstani coaches, who share their experiences and hold master classes and training sessions. Five countries – Oman, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Tajikistan and Nepal – are expected to benefit from the project by the end of 2024.

In addition, KazChess organizes tours for prominent chess players in Kazakhstan. For instance, on August 3, Nurgyul Salimova, a prominent chess player from Bulgaria, played a game with exceptional children at Astana IT University. The event was part of the world rapid and blitz team championship in Astana. The Bulgarian female champion played against 12 chess-loving children, who, despite their diagnoses (vision and hearing disorders, autism, cerebral palsy and heart diseases), played well.

Salimova herself started playing chess at the age of four and took part in her first tournament at six, where she was spotted by coach Zhivko Zhekov. They are still working together. In 2015, Salimova won the world championship for girls in the under-12 age category. In 2017, she became the youngest female chess champion in Bulgaria of all time. In 2019, she was awarded the titles of International Master and Woman Grandmaster by FIDE. In 2021, she made it to the final of the Women’s World Chess Cup.

Gulmira Dauletova, executive director of KazChess and a female grandmaster, also held a simultaneous exhibition with students of the university. During the ongoing world rapid and blitz team championship, Dauletova represents a KazChess team as its captain and plays alongside Bibisara Assaubayeva, Darmen Sadvakasov, Aldiyar Ansat and many other Kazakhstani and foreign chess players.

All students who participated in the simultaneous exhibition received souvenirs from KazChess and had a chance to meet living chess legends Magnus Carlsen and Ding Liren in person. Moreover, from August 2 to 5, residents and guests of Astana were able to visit a chess exhibition by the famous photographer Stev Bonhage.