Today, July 20th is the 92nd anniversary of the founding of FIDE in Paris, France in 1924 and the 50th anniversary of the International Chess Day proposed by UNESCO in 1966. Chess is the only sport which has a special worldwide celebration day dedicated to it. It is a unique game that unites people over the globe. Chess is more than just a sport, it is art, culture and science as well.
FIDE has 187 countries as members. It's goal is to raise the number of the chess players in the world up to at least one billion. The “Chess in Schools” project is a high priority of FIDE and is being implemented in many countries.
On the threshold of the forthcoming big chess events such as 42nd World Chess Olympiad in Baku and the World Championship Match 2016 in New York I would like to congratulate all of you on the occasion of our professional holiday and wish you good health, prosperity and luck!

Gens una sumus! - We are one family!

Yours sincerely,
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
FIDE President

Congratulations from Igor Levitin, Adviser to Russian President