Dear Chess Friends, 

The worldwide community is facing an unprecedented crisis with the Coronavirus pandemic and I heartfeltly hope that my letter finds you in good health and spirit. 

FIDE, supporting the efforts of all national governments and people all over the world, has decided to promote an online international initiative in order to give a creative outlet to those that have to spend many hours at home. Additionally, we promote the ideals of unity and solidarity which must be manifested in such times. 

With the motto "Checkmate Coronavirus" we will organize at least 1500 online tournaments across all major chess platforms with hundreds of thousands participants running for 30 days and 720 hours non-stop. We're planning to launch this project on May 18. 

The tournaments are aimed at all the chess players in the world, regardless of age, country or their level of play. There will be many special prizes, and all of them will be distributed not between those who score more points, but between winners of the random draw, thus giving a winning chance to everyone and reward first and foremost the value of participation. In line with this "Olympic principle" the major prize will be invitations to the 2021 Chess Olympiad in Moscow, for one week. 

I invite you to join this worldwide initiative in two ways: 

• By actively organizing your online tournaments, which will also become part of the “Checkmate Coronavirus” initiative and will give your players a chance to take part in the prize draws.
   
• By spreading the news to the chess clubs and players of your country (or association), encouraging them to participate in "FIDE Checkmate Coronavirus" events, proving that chess is stronger than a disease! 

We stay safe, we stay creative, and we play online chess. 

Checkmate Coronavirus! Gens una Sumus! 

Arkady Dvorkovich
FIDE President
 

How to be a part of "Checkmate Coronavirus? 

Guidelines for Federations & partners 

As the FIDE President pointed out in his letter, the International Chess Federation strongly encourages the National Federations to: 

A) Help to spread the news about this initiative, communicating with their club members and players. 

B) Getting actively involved, organizing their own tournaments within the Checkmate Coronavirus framework. 

Participants of tournaments organized by federations under the Checkmate Coronavirus initiative will also be eligible for the 1.500+ prizes. 5% of the players (and no less than 3), will get “raffle tickets” qualifying for the prize giving, second phase of the draw. 

In order to take part, a Federation should: 

1) Inform the Checkmate Coronavirus team at info@checkmatecoronavirus.com about their intention to organize a tournament (or a series of tournaments) within the Checkmate Coronavirus project, with a minimum notice period of 24 hours 

The required information is:

- Name of the Federation
- Contact person
- Tournament administrator
- Plattform where the tournament will be held.
- A complete schedule for the tournament (date, starting time, and ending time)
- Time control for the event
- Link of the tournament (if it has been already scheduled)
- Additional notes If the Federation wants to organize more than one tournament, it can specify accordingly the details and schedule for each tournament. 

2) The Federation must schedule the tournament(s) and send the links with the final results to the Checkmate Coronavirus administrative team, to the email info@checkmatecoronavirus.com. 

3) Send a complete file with the result, in .xls format, including the following information:
- Name of the tournament
- Time control
- Place
- Nickname
- Score
- Number of finished games 

The administrative team can help in this task if requested. 

4) Abide by the rules described in the Checkmate Coronavirus regulations. 

5) Include a clear reference to the Checkmate Coronavirus project in all the promotional materials for the tournament.* 

*(Please remember that any materials -digital or printed- bearing the FIDE logo must be sent to marketing@fide.com for approval)
 

More information 

Checkmate Coronavirus has a dedicated website, where you can find a "frequently asked questions" section: www.checkmatecoronavirus.com/faq. 

You can also follow regular updates via social media: 

Facebook - www.facebook.com/checkmatecoronavirus 

Instagram - www.instagram.com/checkmatecoronavirus 

Twitter - www.twitter.com/CheckmateCOVID 

The official hashtag we will be using is #CheckmateCoronavirus 

We encourage you to use the images above on your website/social media accounts to help us promote the event. 

Lastly, we would like to thank our partners in this project, Chess.com, Lichess.org, Chess24.com, and FIDE Arena Online, for their valuable help and enthusiastic support towards this initiative.