FIDE Education Summit in Samarkand Highlights Chess as a Global Educational Tool
By Robby B. · Thu, 24 Sep 2026
The FIDE Summit in Samarkand highlighted chess as a powerful educational tool, with global initiatives focused on teacher training, school programs, and long-term partnerships to make chess more accessible to children worldwide.
The FIDE Summit on Chess in Education in Samarkand brought together educators, policymakers, researchers and chess officials to explore how chess can play a larger role in schools and social development around the world. Held alongside the 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad and Congress, the summit emphasized that chess should be viewed not only as a competitive sport, but also as a tool for developing concentration, critical thinking, decision-making and creativity.Viswanathan Anand, serving as FIDE Interim President, argued that the value of chess in education extends beyond academic performance. Drawing on experience from school programs in India, he said chess can teach children to make decisions, evaluate their choices and deal with consequences in an enjoyable setting. At the same time, he stressed that there is no universal model for introducing chess into schools and that programs need to reflect local education systems and circumstances.The summit also highlighted large-scale initiatives already underway. Uzbekistan reported that more than 100,000 students, including 70,000 girls, are participating in chess clubs, while specialized chess classes have been introduced in more than 100 schools. Timur Turlov, President of the International School Chess Federation, pointed to Kazakhstan’s experience, where a pilot program that began with 42 schools in 2023 has expanded to around 2,500 schools alongside teacher-training efforts.A major focus was sustainability. FIDE officials argued that successful educational chess programs require more than simply placing chessboards in classrooms. Teacher training, research, appropriate curricula, government cooperation and long-term institutional support are all necessary if programs are to produce lasting results. FIDE says it has already conducted more than 150 teacher-training sessions in over 40 countries, reaching nearly 3,000 teachers.The summit also produced new partnerships, including agreements aimed at expanding chess education in Barbados and at India’s KIIT and KISS institutions. Together, these initiatives reflected the central message of the event: the future of chess in education will depend not simply on promoting the game, but on building systems that make it accessible, sustainable and genuinely useful to children and teachers.