293 teams and 2,637 players from 53 countries took part in the biggest online competition ever, the World School Chess Tournament, organized by the Spanish Pavilion. The qualifying stage of the tournament for schools with students of all ages up to the U-16 category, representing the countries participating in the World Fair was held online on Chess24 throughout 2021. Twelve top-qualifying teams from the preliminary stage came to UAE to play in the OTB finals at the Dubai Expo.

The finals of the World School Chess Tournament brought together 118 young people from India, Mongolia, Peru, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the USA, Israel, Spain, Turkey and UAE.

The Indian team Velammal Nexus School emerged champions after beating the Peruvian School Saco Oliveros in the final. GMs D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa and Leon Mendonca, along with International Master V Pranav and V Rindhiya bested their opponents by a score of 3-2. Saco Oliveros from Peru had to settle for silver; the 33rd Secondary School of Mongolia came in third.

“We were favourites to win the tournament, but the Peruvian team fought, and they were quite close; it was a very interesting tournament,” 15-year-old Grandmaster Gukesh Dommaraju of Velammal Nexus School said.

The Velammal Nexus School received the trophy from Reem Ibrahim Al Hashemy, Minister of State for International Cooperation and Director-General of Expo 2020 Dubai and José Manuel Franco, Spanish Secretary of State for Sports.

“I would like to first thank all our friends and our colleagues from Spain for your successful conception and delivery of such a splendid tournament and appropriate celebration of a game that was introduced to the Iberian Peninsula by Arab travellers,” said Al Hashemy.

“At Expo, we are honoured to welcome chess events and activities over the coming weeks, the FIDE World Championship is already taking place at Dubai Exhibition Centre, and before the end of December, we will also welcome the Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Cup,  organized by Dubai Chess & Culture Club,” she added.

José Manuel Franco, Spanish Secretary of State for Sports, said: “We are grateful for being able to host the final rounds of this chess tournament on-site; I would like to congratulate and highlight the enormous effort of all the institutions and federations involved.”

During the award ceremony, representatives of the Emirati and Israeli teams played a friendly game.