First EU municipality introduces chess as school subject

The first school chess year in the town of Slivnitsa and the whole European Union was officially opened on 26 October by the ECU President and President of the Bulgarian Chess Federation, Silvio Danailov, in the presence of the Vice President of the Bulgarian Chess Federation, Prof. Nikolay Nedkov, the Head of the Regional Educational Inspectorate Sofia district, Hristo Andreev, and the Deputy Governor of Sofia district, Rositsa Todorova.

Eighty out of 240 students from the ‘St.st. Cyril and Methodius’ school chose to study chess as subject in the course of the 2012-2013 school year. Consequently, they will be the first students from the European Union to receive assessments in chess.

Just a day earlier, the President of the World Chess Federation (FIDE), Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, visited Sofia and met with representatives from the Bulgarian Parliament. The main topic of discussion was chess development in the country, as well as the possibility of provision of government support to the children’s chess, particularly, chess implementation to the school curriculum.