Queens’ Online Chess Festival 2022: Registration opens
The Queens’ Online Chess Festival 2022, a series of continental women’s online blitz tournaments, starts on June 05, 2022. The event organized by FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess in cooperation with FIDE Events Commission, is supported by the Asian Chess Federation, the African Chess Confederation, the European Chess Union, and the Confederation of Chess for Americas. Female players from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas will compete in the Continental Online Blitz Qualification Tournaments first, and those who qualify will advance to the Queens’ Online Individual and Team Finals. The inaugural edition of the Queens’ Festival was held in 2021 and brought together over 460 participants from 82 countries. Many thousands more followed the side events featuring female role model guests and presenters on FIDE social media. With the Year of the Woman in Chess being well underway, the organizers expect even more female players to join this time. The festival welcomes all women chess players from around the world of all ages and all rating groups, including unrated chess fans. Each national federation can register four players free of charge; the entry fee for additional players is €10 per person. The competition will run be held in four rating categories: Category A: 2000 and higherCategory B: 1800-1999Category C: 1600-1799Category D: <1600, unrated Regulations for Queens’ Online Chess Festival 2022 (pdf) Registrations for the tournaments are made by the National Federations by filling this form and sending it to the organizers’ email address: queensfestival@fide.com. The deadline for registration: Friday, May 27, 2022 for America; Friday, June 03, 2022 for Africa and Asia; Friday, June 09, 2022 for Europe. Contact Information: General Director: IM/WGM Eva Repkova Tournament Director: IM/WGM Ilaha Kadimova Chief Arbiter: IA Tania Karali E-mail address: queensfestival@fide.com
FIDE announces long-term cooperation with the Scheinberg family
The contract for the FIDE Grand Swiss-2023 to take place in the Isle of Man was signed last week. In addition, the Scheinberg family confirms it will sponsor one major FIDE event every year up to 2026. The cooperation that started a few years ago has already resulted in two Grand Swiss events (2019, 2021), Women Grand Swiss (2021), and forthcoming Candidates (2022), and will help the top-level chess as well as the promotion of the game on all the continents. Photo credit: Pokerstars