The best students of FIDE Chessable Academy shine in in-person training camp
Thirteen exceptional young talents, born between 2007 and 2013, recently participated in an exclusive in-person training camp alongside chess legends Judit Polgar and Artur Jussupow
These students distinguished themselves among over 450 participants in the project, which brought together some of the most promising chess talents globally.
In its third year, the FIDE Chessable Academy, a partnership between FIDE and Chessable, aims to provide an in-depth training experience for the most gifted young chess players nominated by their national federations and FIDE-endorsed Academies. This initiative provided a unique opportunity for advanced chess training led by renowned players and coaches.
Running from January until the beginning of April, the FIDE Chessable Academy comprised weekly online lessons culminating in an intensive in-person camp for the most successful participants.
From March 28 to April 2, thirteen talented players, including five girls, convened in Menorka to undergo rigorous training under the mentorship of Judit Polgar and Artur Jussupow.
To qualify for the in-person training, each FIDE Chessable Academy student had to meet specific criteria, including FIDE standard rating above 2000, attendance of a minimum of 75% of the online lectures, and others.
Both FIDE and Chessable reserved the right to add one additional player each. Although originally planned for twelve participants, the final training stage included thirteen individuals.
The FIDE Chessable Academy in-person training camp, organized by the FIDE Trainers’ Commission, covered essential aspects of chess gameplay, including exploring typical and innovative opening ideas, position evaluation, game planning, prophylactic thinking, principles of attack and defence, piece evaluation, and exploiting weaknesses in a position.
In addition to the chess mastery class, the participants also took part in the “FIDE Personal Growth Academy”, where they were taught about the importance of developing social skills and personal development. The session featured experts like Dana Reizniece-Ozola, Geert van der Velde, Maria Yuste, and Natalia Ryzhenko, covering topics such as the power of a personal brand, the rules of communication and the dress and ethics codes of FIDE.
“With personal growth training, we want to give these young talents and their parents a glimpse into those skills that will be important in their professional career – healthy nutrition and fitness, personal brand development and media training,” says Sami Khader, the Chair of FIDE Trainers’ Commission.
About the FIDE Chessable Academy
The FIDE Chessable Academy was launched in 2021 as a joint training initiative by FIDE and Chessable — the world’s leading chess e-learning platform. Its mission is to help up-and-comers become the best players they can be. Over these years, hundreds of promising youngsters from over 100 national federations enjoyed free access to Chessable courses — plus exclusive lessons from the world’s top coaches. Among the academy’s students were the 2024 Candidate GM Gukesh D and the 2023 World Junior Girls’ Champion WGM Candela Belén Francisco Guecamburu.
