Reports of the FIDE Chessable Camp @ EXPO 2020 Dubai
FIDE Chessable Camp at EXPO 2020 Dubai: Days 1-3 recap
At the end of Day 3 of the FIDE Chessable Camp @ EXPO 2020 Dubai, the participants had an opportunity to attend the fifth game of the FIDE World Chess Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi.
The lucky 12 youngsters were selected from 250 players aged from 8 to 16 nominated by 100 federations, who have been undergoing training for two hours every week since July.
From Asia, there are six, with four from India: Gukesh D and Leon Luke Mendonca, the wild cards, and Divya Jitendra Desmuth and Sahiti Varshini Moogi. Others are Poh Yu Tian from Malaysia and Abdulrahman Mohamad Al Taher nominated by the host country UAE.
There are four representatives of Europe: Enrico Follesa from Belgium, Ayan Allaverdiyevam from Azerbaijan, Magnus Ermitsch from Germany, and Adrian Stenier Soderstrom from Sweden
The Americas is represented by Ilan Schnaider and Caldela Belen Francisco Guecamburu, both from Argentina.
Day 1 started with a room full of guests who have rarely been seen together in one place before: FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, Deputy President Bachar Kouatly, Managing Director Dana Reizniece-Ozola, and Chessable CEO Geert van der Velde. It was hard to tell whose words were more inspiring!
It only got better when former World Champion Viswanathan Anand delivered an instructive lecture of the highest quality.
Did a tremendous and quick improvement occur right in this camp, or it can be attributed to the five months of weekly lessons two hours a week in English, Spanish and Russian before? Whatever the reason, the ten youngsters who took on TRG Chairman and Russia National Junior Coach Mikhail Kobalia in clock simul were on fire, scoring five wins, three draws and suffering only two losses!
Day 2 was a treat of another kind for the young participants as, together with their parents, they had a chance to experience EXPO.
Day 3 saw Chessable CEO Geert van der Velde lead a round table discussion where life lessons took the centre stage together with the development of industry-leading training platform Chessable with Chessable Classroom.
What’s ahead?
Day 4 will be a day of intense training at the actual match venue with Mikhail Kobalia and Viswanathan Anand, a behind the scenes visit that Dana Reizniece-Ozola will wrap up. The FIDE Managing Director will talk about her career path from being a chess player to becoming an award-winning Minister of Finance and still having enough skills to beat the world No 1 Hou Yifan when Latvia met China at the 2016 Olympiad in Baku.
On Day 5, the young participants will have some precious time with the FIDE World Cup 2021 winner Jan-Krzysztof Duda sharing his valuable experience with them.
FIDE Chessable camp: Time to say goodbye
The FIDE Chessable Camp held between November 28 and December 3 in Dubai as a part of the FIDE Chessable Academy program has come to an end. Twelve youngsters from India, Malaysia, UAE, Belgium, Azerbaijan, Germany, Sweden, and Argentina visited Dubai for a unique opportunity to be trained by ex-World Champion Viswanathan Anand and 2021 FIDE World Cup winner Jan-Krzysztof Duda. The students also enjoyed a behind-the-scenes visit to the FIDE World Championship Match between the World Champion Magnus Carlsen and the Challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi.
On December 3, the students of the camp had a day of intense training at the World Championship match venue. TRG Chairman and Russia National Junior Coach Mikhail Kobalia started the morning session with a review of the match and analysis of the games played. Then Viswanathan Anand and his Q&A session followed.
On the last day of the camp, students met 2021 FIDE World Cup winner Jan-Krzysztof Duda who explained some key games from his career and played blitz with each and everyone.
At the end of the camp, children received their certificates of participation signed by the lecturers of the project.
“Most probably you will forget some nuances you’ve learnt here, but I do hope that what will remain is a lot of positive emotions, strong impressions and this very special feeling of being close to chess elite and understanding how the road behind the scenes of the world championship match is organized. I hope this will leave you with a strong level of motivation; it will boost your energy and serve as a battery for the following years to work hard,” said FIDE Managing Director Dana Reizniece-Ozola.
“I enjoyed seeing all of you interact with the coaches. When we partnered with FIDE, we felt really excited by the possibility of working together and creating new opportunities for talented kids like you. Thank you so much for being a part of our first-ever FIDE Chessable academy camp here in Dubai, and I hope to see you back in the Chessable classroom in the future!” added the Chief Executive Officer of Chessable Geert van der Velde.
The Dubai camp is over, but studies of the FIDE Chessable Academy, a three-year junior educational program, will continue. The most talented and promising young players aged from 8 to 16, representing 100 national federations, will be having two hours of training every weekend in English, Spanish, and Russian. Among the FIDE Chessable Academy students are young talents in the top five rankings in their age group and winners at the World Youth and Cadets Championships.
