International Chess Day!
The World Chess Federation or the International Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French name Federation Internationale Des Echecs (FIDE) was founded on 20th July 1994. Though there was small organizations and World Chess Championship matches reported earlier, the formal FIDE was established on this day.
It was considered that the Secretary General of the French Chess Federation, Vincent Pierre was the founder of FIDE due to his commitment for establishing the organization. The first president of the FIDE is Dr. Alexandar Reub from the Netherlands.
The first 15 countries signed in the FIDE Establishment are Argentina, Belgium Canada, France, Spain, Finland, England, The Netherlands, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.
Sri Lanka Joined Fide in 1978 since their first participation the FIDE Chess Olympiad in the same year at Buenos Aires, Argentina.
FIDE has taken a lot of steps in promoting the game with conducting many events on It’s motto is Gens Una Sumus!, Latin for "We are one Family". In 1999, FIDE was recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). As of September 2020, there are 195 member federations of FIDE. According to the estimates there are more than 600 million Chess competitive players in the world and FIDE is working hard to make it till 1 billion as soon as possible.
The International Chess Day is celebrated annually on July 20, the day the International Chess Federation was founded, in 1924. The idea to celebrate this day as the international chess day was proposed by UNESCO, and it has been celebrated as such since 1966, after it was established by FIDE.
The Chess Federation is planning to start a Chess teaching project to 10,000 new comers for the game which start ceremonially tomorrow with the presence of FIDE Management Committee Chairman and other guests for the first 300 beginners. The Program will be conducted by the 1st Women International Master of Sri Lanka, Sachini Ranasinghe with one of the leading Chess International Arbiters in Asia, Australian, Jamie Kenmure starting at 7.00 p.m.
Let’s celebrate this most important day tomorrow.
President – Chess Federation of Sri Lanka
General Secretary – South Asian Chess Council
General Secretary – Commonwealth Chess Association
Vice President – Asian Chess Federation