Articles

What is unique about chess?

Chess is a sport that is played on EQUAL  TERMS irrespective of whether the players are able bodied or not. This is something that cannot be said of field sports. Age is not a barrier to playing chess, neither is gender nor disability.

Three teams representing disabled groups participate in the FIDE Olympiads.  These are the IPCA (Physically Handicapped), the  ICSC (Deaf ) and the IBCA, the body responsible for chess for the blind and visually impaired. All three organisations have competed honourably in the FIDE Olympiads.

It is of great importance that  National Federations  and  Continental organisations do everything within their power to promote chess amongst the disabled. We  are “one family“ as the motto of FIDE says and we need officials that will uphold that motto.

Nowadays a lot of tournaments are run using time controls that have time increments. This type of time control requires the use of a digital chess clock. This type of clock is unsuitable for chess players who are blind.

The solution is a talking chess clock with a socket for an ear piece. This would enable the blind or visually impaired player to use the clock without distracting the opponent or those sitting nearby.

For this to happen, we need federations and continental organisations to help with the development of such a clock and also to put pressure on FIDE to play its part in this important project.

Stephen Hilton

Secretary General

International Braille Chess Association  (IBCA)

Today the main problem for the majority of chess professionals is to survive. Our great players should look constantly for different clubs, different tournaments or appearance fees, they have to win tournaments with prize fund to survive. A player who goes to a European Individual Chess Championship should have personal resources and a hope that he will win the tournament and will get back some part of the money he spends.  Maybe he will go to World Cup to get more money.

This is a pity. Or the player should look for unlikely Federation support (unfortunately very few federations may afford it) to participate. As We R Europe Team we will change this destiny. By making our loved sport more popular, the greatest benefit will be earned by professionals. Look at for example what has happened in Turkey. Today to be a Turkish FM means minimum 2.000€ salary per month due to huge demand of private courses, clubs trainings, being a member of clubs.

We believe that one of the most important aims in chess must be Professional chess. Chess in schools is a vehicle, a lever to make chess more popular with a gigantic number of players. Professional chess is another of our key targets. Chess is clearly a business. There is no professional sport that you may approach as a non-business organisation today. We will create a new ECU, approaching chess with a business model which is very clear in all its steps. The idea is to create a chess pyramid with amateur and professional players.

We will benchmark with the other sports reviewing how they became successful and setting targets for our own achievements. Take a look at football, darts or snooker! When we look at these examples, we see that top sports personalities are known by the public and there is huge media coverage, which means millions of people following those sports.

In chess our chances today, are not so strong to get the same air time in television and in the media. However, we have concrete proposals which may attract millions to the sport and to practice or follow the sport. Then, sponsorship comes very fast.

The problem in European Chess is that the ECU does not have control over the chess pyramid. We  know there is already a large number of amateur chess players in the system. However, these people are not controlled or structured in order to make a working business model. We think the best way to solve this is a bottom-up approach using the chess in schools project.

The group, mainly kids, will participate in events and join clubs, and in turn the clubs become stronger. The pyramid starts to have a wider base, the total number of players increases and the total number of professionals increases in parallel, even as the percentage of professional players decreases in relation to the whole.

The increased money generated by the system is thanks to the amateurs who also increase the demand for professionals for:

The benefits of professional chess players with our model

With our model we make it step by step possible. We have a model we have experience and know-how to do it.

Winning is a habit, Success is a choice

Chess in Schools

It is clear that the success of chess is directly related with the development of chess in schools.

With the new We R Europe team, the President will be a consultant for all federations who want to succeed with “chess in schools” projects.

We have a fundamental belief that “Chess in schools” is the main and critical promotional engine which creates a huge awareness and popularity with a gigantic number of children in each country.

We know very clearly that each country, each education system, is different with its own laws and legislations.

Our customised services will include tailoring products and materials to create a model for each federation which wants to undertake this project.

Our position will not be patronage but on the contrary we will be a free consultant and partner.

We would like to refer here some useful material to be shared for readers.

Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligencies  Academic Benefits of Chess

The aim is not to generate grandmasters in schools, the aim is to make chess like painting, music, or native language, a learning course for all children. To give the advantages of teaching chess to our young citizens. To create our “Children of Tomorrow”.

Sure, the result will be a young population learning to play chess and also involving their parents. This will attract sponsors at national and continental level.

And do not underestimate that a big percentage of this population will join chess clubs and federations as members.

Let us share with you what happened in Turkey in the last 5 years with chess in schools.

In the last 5 years more than 200 private chess clubs opened in Turkey... This is only one of them..

The number of children learning chess  from 2005 till 2010: 2.250.000 (two million, two hundred fifty thousand). This means around 10 million citizens (including parents and relatives) are related or aware of chess. The Turkish Federation had 174.000 members with the end of 2009. Our aim is to achieve 250.000 members by the end of 2010.

The budget of Turkish Chess Federation is just around 6 million Euros. Many elite players have been developed thanks to the budget! The biggest bank in Turkey, IsBankasi, became sponsor of Turkish Chess Federation (1.2 million USD per year). Federation has become a prestigious sports organisation in Turkey and we have access to Government, sponsors and media. The next step is “Chess in Clubs”!

We propose two main models for chess in school:

We will be with you all the time, at your service, for chess in schools and chess in clubs projects with each willing federation.

Winning is a habit, Success is a choice