On May 18 the FIDE President arrived in Romania. In Bucharest, he participated in the opening ceremony of the national schools championship dedicated to a famous Romanian chess player, arbiter and journalist Elisabeta Polihroniade. At the ceremony, also present were Viktor Ponta, the Romanian Prime Minister, Remus Pricopie, the Minister of Education, Kristian Kosmin, the State Secretary of Ministry of Youth and Sports, Ion Dobronauteanu, the Vice President of the European Chess Union, Sorin-Avram Iacobian, the President of Romanian Chess Federation, Georgios Makropoulos, the FIDE Deputy President.

FIDE and the Romanian Chess Federation signed an agreement on cooperation in respect of the Chess in Schools programme


The Ministry of Education and the Chess Federation of Romania also signed an agreement on introducing chess in Romanian schools


Playing hall


FIDE President playing against the Prime Minister Viktor Ponte

The same day the FIDE delegation met with the Speaker of Romanian Parliament Valeriu Zgonea and the Vice President of the Romanian NOC Alin Petrache.