Today (20th July ) is the International Chess day
The 20th July is approved as the International Chess day by the United Nations from last year. The Chess is one of the most famous games in the world. It was recorded that about 700 million Chess players in the world today. The World Chess Federation has started a program to increase the number till one billion people in the world. So, the FIDE was celebrating the 20th July as the world Chess day to mark their birth of 20th July 2024 in Parris. Considering the games development and commitment of developing Children in the world UNESCO made a proposal to the United Nations to approve it as World Chess Day.
FIDE, the world Chess Federation is one of the most active Sporting Bodies in the World. It is one of the largest in the world with a membership of 190 countries. They conduct the World Chess Championships and FIDE Chess Olympiad in every two years term. They also conduct the World Chess Championships in all sectors such as Cadet (Under 8, 10, 12 years), Youth (Under 14, 16 & 18 Years), Junior (Under 20), Amateur, seniors, Schools & Universities in both gender. They also organize the regional events through their five continental Associations. Currently, the FIDE is led by Arkady Dvorkovich, who was the main organizer of the Football World Cup 2018, and Deputy Prime Minister of Russia between 2012 and 2018.
Chess is a very famous sport in Sri Lanka too, mostly among the School Children. The Sri Lankan Chess Federation (CFSL)claims that they have a registered membership of around 150,000 Chess players in Sri Lanka. All most all the events conducted by the FIDE are organized as National events here starting from District level. The strongest player and the current National Chess Champion is Master Harshana Thilakarathne of Maliyadeva College, Kurunegala who is just 16 years in age. He has achieved the International Master Title from FIDE this year for his performance. Women’s National Champion is Gihansa Jayaweera from Dharmasoka College, Ambalangoda who is still 17 years. The Chess Federation is one of the most active sporting organizations in the country having more than 150 tournaments per year. There are about 10 International Ranking events per year with handsome cash rewards. Even the National Chess Champion is awarded a cash prize of Rs. 100,000/=.
The CFSL has conducted at least one international Asian or Commonwealth event per year. In 2019, we organized the Asian Youth Chess Championships 2019 at Citrus, Waskaduwa with 300 foreign players from 23 Asian Countries it was highly successful.
The Chess Federation was very active even in this COVID 19 Pandemic time. We already conducted 7 online events for our players. The various Chess Clubs in the country had around 500 online events. We were able to hire an Ukraine Grand Master, Dymitro Komrov to train our Youth and National Pools which was popular a lot among Sri Lankan top players. We also participated in the Asian Junior/ Girls online Championships and won the Women’s Championship in South Asian Region. We are also expecting to participate in the FIDE online Chess Olympiad which is conducted by the FIDE where about 180 countries will participate. Finally, we conducted the 1st Sporting event of the country after the Pandemic, 7th Sri Lanka Chess Grand Prix 2020 which concluded yesterday.
We also happy to say during this hard time CFSL made grants and loans to our coaches & arbiters as a support to overcome the difficulties during last few months, We also made a contribution to the Government COVID Fund with the support of the Chess community as a responsible organization in the country.
On this most important day, we invite everyone in the country to introduce Chess to your Children where they will have an exciting mind sport while developing all qualities for their lives.
Gens Una Sumus! (Latin)
We are one family!
Luxman Wijesuriya
FIDE Delegate – CFSL
General Secretary – South Asian Chess Council
General Secretary – Commonwealth Chess Association
Vice President – Asian Chess Federation
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