During the World School Chess Championships 2015 in Pattaya, Thailand, the FIDE Arbiters’ seminar was conducted by FIDE IA Bong Bunawan of Indonesia and IA NY Wong of Singapore.

Abdul Haleem Thowfeeq of Maldives, Patcharada Prahmawong of Thailand, Prakar Klabnong of Thailand, Gerald Chan of the Singapore, Panupand Vijjuprabha of Thailand were present at the seminar. Two main points of the seminar will be paid attention in details: FIDE laws of chess and competition rules. Arbiters were interested in a seminar and asked a lot of questions.

Seminar will last for three more days. IA NY Wong said that they will try to cover all important issues and explain to arbiters how to work professionally.

On 9 May 2015 the FIDE Trainers’ Seminar started in Dusit Thani Pattaya, the venue of the World School Chess Championships 2015. FIDE GM, FST, IA, IO Efstratios Grivas (TRG Secretary) was the lecturer of the seminar.

35 trainers from 7 federations were present at the seminar, which will be held for 3 more days (10, 12 & 13 May). The seminar is focused on education and certification of trainers worldwide and it is part of the global FIDE Trainers’ Commission developmental program. More info can be found at http://trainers.fide.com.

On 10 May the entertaining evening with an official name “Social Night” was organized for the participants of the World School Chess Championships 2015. It is a nice opportunity for all children to get friends, to relax and to distract from chess games. All mothers of the championships were congratulated with an International Mother’s Day.

Then the cultural contest commenced. All delegations prepared their performance. Kids approached to this competition seriously. The prize fund was very high. There were five places to be nominated to five best groups. The officials of the tournament acted as judges of the contest.

The results of the contest was fair: fifth place was given to two girls from England for their song “Let it go”. A boy from Thailand was awarded with fourth place for his national dance. A Russian girl got third place for her beautiful piano play performance. The Mongolian delegation prepared a very nice song performed by a young girl with a supporting singing group behind. They got the second place. The first place was given to the young players from Kazakhstan. As many kids as the stage of the evening could afford were dancing a national dance together.

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The Opening Ceremony of the World Chess Championship 2015 started on time on 7 May at 14.30 local time. Mr. Philip Chan, Director of the Social activities conducted the ceremony. He greeted all the participants of the championships, parents, guests and officials of this event.

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The anthem of Thailand Kingdom and FIDE anthem were played to start the Opening Ceremony.



The floor was given to the General Secretary of the Thailand Chess Federation Mr. Panupand Vijjuprabba. Mr. Vijjuprabba expressed his hope that the logistics worked out well and all the participants and guests were happy with the conditions of the hotel, food and organization so far. He also mentioned that apart from games of chess, there are a lot of activities that could be done in Pattaya city during the period of the championships. Mr. Vijjuprabba wished to all the participants and guests enjoyable stay and good chess results.



The Chief Organizer Mr. Ignatius Leong was invited to the stage. He welcomed all the participants, guests, organizers and partners in Thailand, Pattaya city. He recollected that when his Chess Academy made a bid for this event, he could not expect the raise of costs of the hotel in Singapore. When this happened, they looked for another place of organizing. Together with Mr. Panupand they made a decision in favour of Pattaya city He hoped that this decision was correct.



Mr. Leong said that he was very grateful to all the delegations which came to Pattaya to participate in the Championships. The special thanks were addressed to Latin America delegations from Colombia, Costa Rica and Peru. Also, he mentioned a great love to chess which made Kazakhstan delegation to be the biggest delegation consisting of 111 people, together with parents and accompanying persons. He also underlined that only 10% of participants are from Thailand, which means that these championships were more foreign than local. At the end of his speech, Mr. Leong wish luck and victories to all the participants.



The President of the International School Chess Union Mr. Alexander Kostyev shared with the audience his gladness that the School championships are very popular in the world of chess and are organized nowadays on a regular basis. He congratulated all the participants with the start of the championships. Mr. Kostyev expressed his confidence that many of the participants of the championships would become very strong grandmasters in future.



The official FIDE Technical Delegate, a member of the FIDE Events commission, Mr. Ozgur Solakoglu welcomed all the participants, distinguished guests, parents and organizers and thanked them all for organizing this great event. He mentioned that FIDE and FIDE Events commission always try to make the conditions of every chess event better, popularizing game of chess and increasing the number of participants. Mr. Solakoglu expressed his hope that all the participants will like the conditions of the championships and enjoy their stay in Pattaya city.

Mr. Solakoglu delivered a message from the FIDE President who wished good luck, interesting games, pleasant atmosphere and good results to all the participants. He expressed his hope that chess funs will follow interesting battles and friendship that is being started between kids now will be continued in the future as well.



The floor was given to a special guest of the Opening Ceremony – Mr. Banjong Bantoon Prayub, the Deputy Spokesman of Pattaya City. On behalf of Pattaya government he welcomed the participants and guests of the championships. He said that the World Schools Chess Championship is very important tournament for Thailand and Pattaya city in particular. Mr. Prayub thanked the Asian Chess Academy for giving such an opportunity to host such an important major event in his city. It was a great chance, he mentioned, to host so many young chess players from 35 countries. He underlined that game of chess helped to promote the intellectual development among children. Mr. Prayub was very happy that this championship was organized in Pattaya city. He wished success to all the participants.



To upkeep the spirit of the sportsmanship and fair play in the championship, the nominated player Mendoza Shania Mae of the Philippines was invited to the stage. Mae swore to the audience on behalf of all participants that they will show a fair play, respect all competitors and friendship between players, truth faith of sportsmanship and glory of chess.



To uphold the spirit and integrity of the laws of chess, the Chief Arbiter Mr. Mahdi Abdulrahim was invited to the stage. He swore to the audience in the name of all arbiters to conduct a fair judging during the championships, respect to all the participants and complete following the FIDE chess rules.

After the Opening Ceremony the 1st round of the World Schools Chess Championships 2015 has started…

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