2020 Global Chess Festival press conference announced
From casual fans to professional players, everyone can join in this year’s educational, scientific, artistic and sports activities as the chess festival event moves into online format. On Thursday 1 October, 2020, from 10 to 11 am, Olympic chess champion Judit Polgár, one of the greatest female players of all time, and Norbert Fogarasi, Managing Director of Morgan Stanley Budapest, the main sponsors of the event, and a board member of the Hungarian Chess Federation, will hold a press conference about the 6th Global Chess Festival, to be held on 10 October, 2020. You can join the press conference, following a brief registration procedure HERE, clicking on “LIVE”. Journalists can participate in the press conference online. A limited number of spaces will be available for TV crews and photographers to join Judit Polgár and Norbert Fogarasi in the Global Chess Festival’s digital control room under safe conditions, at the following address: RentIT, Komócsy utca 9, H-1141 Budapest. Our topics at the press conference: Pandemic and crisis management from a Grandmaster’s perspective. Chess has brought masters and students closer to each other across continents during the lockdown as millions have played online and streaming audiences have multiplied. Judit Polgár has built on her experience and tactical skills from chess tournaments to see the challenges of the past few months as opportunities, and has created an exciting online space for the Global Chess Festival that everyone can join. This year’s festivities will feature Garry Kasparov and the Polgár sisters. Chess in (remote) education. Chess helps education and the integration of various communities in society. Judit has invited internationally renowned experts to discuss various topics during this year’s Global Chess Festival. One of the topics will concern the handling of social and psychological problems of children from immigrant families, and the positive effect of chess on prison convicts. Judit has again invited more than 500 schools and 2,000 teachers to join the Global Chess Festival, and will discuss the recent work she has done in Hungarian schools among teachers. The role of chess in business. Norbert Fogarasi will talk about the lessons businesses can learn from chess, and how the skills developed while playing can benefit employees in many ways. Tournaments and the champions of the future. Judit will host several legendary competitors at this year’s festival, including chess Grandmaster and pro footballer Simen Agdestein, who discovered and mentored the talent of reigning World Champion Magnus Carlsen. Judit will discuss online tournaments and chess courses that everyone can join – from beginners to the champions of tomorrow. Events will include a virtual simultaneous exhibition with Judit and Sofia Polgár. Questions may be submitted through the online interface during the press conference under the QUESTIONS menu. Please indicate any requests for interviews in advance. A press release, photographs and a detailed festival programme will be shared with journalists. Please note that any and all on-site TV crew personnel will be requested to wear face masks. Thank you! For further information and interview requests please contact the person in charge from the GCF team Arpad Lipcsei: press@GlobalChessFestival.com Official website: http://www.globalchessfestival.com/
#15
Italian Chess Federation celebrates its centenary ChessMatec free Workshop Brief news from National Federations “Chess connects us” Who wants to be a Minister? Bringing chess to public spaces Anniversaries READ NEWSLETTER
Bringing chess to public spaces
This article was originally published on the FIDE Newsletter #15 (September 28, 2020). If you want to receive this biweekly publication directly in your inbox, please subscribe here. 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 already, and his initiative has already 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. Photo: https://twitter.com/jmedinamolina