Tuesday 20th July is International Chess Day. This marks the anniversary of the day that the International Chess Federation (FIDE) was founded in 1924. The idea of celebrating International Chess Day was introduced by UNESCO in 1966 and in 2019 the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution recognising the date. Like last year, the theme for the day is to teach someone you know how to play chess, and we would ask all ECF members and chess players to support this.
Please see the link below for more details of global plans to mark the day for this year from FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich and Chief Marketing and Communications Officer David Llada – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/International-Chess-Day-July-20.html. For anniversary wishes from the ECU – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2VWaf9-aOk
New to Chess – teach someone how to play
You can find some useful material to help teach someone to play on our New to Chess Page here along with many other useful chess resources — https://www.englishchess.org.uk/new-to-chess/
Events
The ECF is organising and/or taking part in a number of online events to recognise the day including —
10.00am to 6.00pm Junior Club Superblitz plus ‘Variant’ Chess events here —
Antichess – https://lichess.org/tournament/bkbknot3
Atomic – https://lichess.org/tournament/uhHv2zX6
Chess960 – https://lichess.org/tournament/5a2O1WZS
Crazyhouse – https://lichess.org/tournament/cpQTdvtb
Horde – https://lichess.org/tournament/S8mFXjFD
SuperBlitz Swiss (9 rounds at 3|0) – https://lichess.org/swiss/s1Rg8RRt
6.30 to 8.30pm International Chess Day ‘Champions League’ Team Battle for Lichess English Chess Players and Lichess England Women team members with teams from across the world taking part in a two hour event at 3|0 time control – https://lichess.org/tournament/remY0B1h
Glorney Cup Online Team Competition
This is an International Junior team event between teams from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, with Round 3 scheduled to take place between 6.00 and 8.00pm on Tuesday 20th July – https://chess-results.com/tnr569581.aspx?lan=1&art=0&flag=30 and https://chess-results.com/tnr569577.aspx?lan=1&art=0&flag=30. Keep an eye on the games here – https://www.chess.com/events/2021-glorney-cup-under-18
Chess.com Events and Marathon
Chess.com are running a series of events and have published a news item with ideas of how to celebrate the day – https://www.chess.com/article/view/2021-international-chess-day. The events include a special online marathon, in arena format starting at 8.00am on Tuesday 20th July and running for 24 hours at 3|0 time control. Registration will be open from an hour before the start time as with other Chess.com events. Given the arena format, you will be able to play for as much or as little of the event as you like – https://www.chess.com/play/arena/1264861
The World Cup
The FIDE Chess World Cup is currently in progress in Sochi in Russia. This is an annual competition with 206 of the world’s strongest players – including World Champion Magnus Carlsen – competing in a big knockout event. The qualifying stages have been running since July 10th with the finals now in progress and scheduled to continue until August 8th. You can follow the action on FIDE’s broadcast channel on YouTube, and this would be a great way to mark the day in addition to participation in coaching someone new to chess and events – https://www.youtube.com/c/fidechannel/videos