On April 2, the FIDE President arrived to Chisinau where he took part in the closing ceremony of Veaceslav Cebanenco Memorial. The working programme in the capital of Moldova President Ilyumzhinov started with the meeting with Prime Minister Mr. Iurie Leance. At the meeting also present were Mr. Ali Nihat Yazici, FIDE Vice President and Chairman of Chess in Schools Commission, Mr. Berik Balgabaev, FIDE President’s Assistant, Mr. Leonid Buzhor, Prime Minister’s advisor, former Minister of Education, and Mr. Valery Coada, General Secretary of Moldavian Chess Federation. It was noted that Moldova is one of the best examples of cooperation between FIDE and national federation in the implementation of CiS programme. It has passed three stages in Moldova. Initially the FIDE President allocated money from his personal funds to support the programme in the rural schools. Twenty-five schools from different parts of the country were drawn into it. At the second stage, the government of Moldova supplied forty-five schools more with the equipment. At the third stage, the FIDE CiS Commission involved in the programme more than 100 schools. PM Leance agreed to support this project. “We need to think over how to make it a national programme. And I believe chess should be inculcated to kids from kindergarten.” In this connection, he intends to spend a part of grant 25 million euros allocated by the European Institutes for the development of pre-school education.

Meeting with the Prime Minister of Republic of Moldova Mr. Iurie Leance

Diffusion map of all three stages of CiS programme in Moldova

Press conference in INFOTAG news agency: Mr. Ali Nihat Yazici, FIDE Vice President, Chairman of Chess in Schools Commission, Mr. Igor Dodon, President of Moldavian CF, FIDE President, Mr. Ion Dobronauteanu, Vice President of European Chess Union, Delegate of Romanian CF. President Dodon said that Moldova intends to bid for hosting the Women’s World Championship scheduled for this October.


Visiting the Nicolai Gogol Lyceum where chess lessons are conducted

9-year-old Andrei was the first one who correctly answered to FIDE President’s question who is World Chess Champion


As a reward, he got a chance to play blitz with the president.

Visiting the chess-draughts club where Veaceslav Cebanenco Memorial was held


The closing ceremony was held in Codru Hotel, in 1997 the participants of FIDE Congress were residing in this hotel

Igor Dodon, President of Moldavian Chess Federation


Dragos Hincu, Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports or Republic of Moldova

Awarding Ceremony


Alexei Shirov won bronze; he shared his memories of Veaceslav Cebanenco

The runner-up Vladimir Malakhov was in Chisinau for the first time


The winner is Viorel Bologan