A Chess Day was celebrated on May 25th by the Olympic Committee of Russia (Luzhnetskaya Naberezhnaya, 8) with the participation of Mr. Alexander Zhukov, the President of Russian NOC, Mr. Arkady Dvorkovich, Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, FIDE President, GM Alexander Morozevich and GM Ian Nepomniachtchi.
The main event of the day was the presentation of an unique chess technology, which was created by the National Center of Global Innovations and F.I.S.S. CHESS 4×4 Ltd, and allows organising paired chess games.
The basis of the project, which was presented to the audience for the first time, lies in an idea proposed in 2005 by Russian sports and chess specialists. The ultimate goal of the authors is the full support of the inclusion of chess in the future programme of the Olympic Games.
An unprecedented chess set allows the organisation of paired chess events where players within a pair do not interact i.e each player in a given moment of the game has to make an independent decision on the next move. The time given to each pair, is common for both players. The chance for them to interact is excluded – both chess boards and both chess clocks are separated by a great distance or a barrier between them.
The originality and novelty of the found solution was has been patented by such countries as England, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Spain, Israel, Italy, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, Russia, Turkey, China, France and Switzerland.
Another advantage of chess games played between the two pairs of players is its high attractiveness as this is a team competition. Increase of the number of those who participate in paired games is explained by its additional attractiveness for the players who despite their respective low personal rating, might become paired games world champions, provided they achieve good level of understanding and play well as a pair.
The device is also very convenient in use as the players receive the information about what they will have to do during next move, in advance. Besides, new chess technology uses standard chess equipment, there are only additional individual indicators showing the move at the next board.
The new technology will contribute to the popularization of chess around the world and to FIDE’s intention to attract one billion people.