International Chess Day

International Chess Day
Observed by Various countries
Date 20 July
Frequency Annual
First time 1966
Related to FIDE, Chess

The International chess day is celebrated annually on July 20, the day the International Chess Federation (FIDE) was founded, in 1924.

The idea to celebrate this day as the international chess day was proposed by UNESCO, and it has been celebrated as such since 1966,[1] after it was established by FIDE. FIDE, which has 181 chess federations as its members,[2] organizes chess events and competitions around the world on this day. As recently as 2013, the international chess day was celebrated in 178 countries, according to FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.[3]

The day is celebrated by many of the 605 million regular chess players around the world.[4][5][6] A 2012 Yougov poll showed that “a surprisingly stable 70% of the adult population has played chess at some point during their lives”.[6] This number holds at approximately the same level in countries as diverse as the US, UK, Germany, Russia, India.[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "History of International Chess Day". Chess-teacher.com. Retrieved 2015-07-07.
  2. ↑ "FIDE Membership". FIDE.com. Retrieved 2015-07-01.
  3. ↑ "Interview by Kirsan Ilyumzhinov - in Russian". Vesti.ru. Retrieved 2015-07-07.
  4. ↑ "Number of Chess Players Worldwide". Theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2013-07-28.
  5. ↑ "Can Andrew Paulson and Magnus Carlsen Make Chess Cool". NewRepublic.com. Retrieved 2015-07-07.
  6. 1 2 3 "New chess player statistics from Yougov released". FIDE.com. Retrieved 2015-07-07.
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