FIDE Events Commission is happy to announce that the first-ever World Schools Team Championship (WSTC) becomes a part of the FIDE Chess Calendar starting from the year 2023.
Currently, more thanย 25 million kidsย worldwide are involved in scholastic chess, and FIDE’s goal is toย double that number. Increasing the number of scholastic events and creating a coherent system of annual tournaments will contribute to this goal. The new flagship event, the World Schools Team Championship,ย aย competition among the teams of general educational institutions, will see its inaugural edition held in Kazakhstan from August 3-8, 2023.
WSTC will consist of two stages. The first stage is the national championships among general educational institutions. The strongest teams will advance to the second stage, the Final, which will determine the best team in the world. The Finals will be played in two age groups: Under 12 and Under 18.
The first 50 National Federations to enter can nominate one of their teams for “invited team” status. The teams with this status are entitled to:
- Free accommodation (2 twin rooms and 1 single room for children plus 1 single room for the captain)
- Travel grant (from Asia and Europe up to $5,000 and from Africa and the Americas up to $10,000) to cover the cost of economy class flights and some internal travel expenses
Each team will consist of four main players, one reserve, and one captain. For the Stage 2, it is very important that all members of the team obtain FIDE IDs. For Stage 1, we recommend that each federation holds local and regional competitions before organizing the national final, and encourage participation of both boys and girls. The time control for the National Championships shall be 45 minutes plus a 10-second increment per move starting from move one.
The World Final will be held as an 8-round Swiss team tournament, played with two games per day over 4 days. The time control is the same, 45 minutes plus a 10-second increment.
All Final Stage participants will receive Participation certificates; players and captains of 3 top teams will receive trophies, gold, silver and bronze medals, and other memorable gifts. In addition, there will be special board prizes for players who played six or more games. And of course, the winners earn the prestige as the best school chess team in the world!
FIDE will soon announce the hosting city of the Finals. Regulations can be found on the FIDE website.
