13th European Individual Chess Championship
Plovdiv, March 19 to April 1, 2012

Press Conference of Mr. Silvio Danailov

Mr Silvio Danailov – President of the European Chess Union and President of the Bulgarian Chess Federation gave a press conference at the Novotel’s Press Centre of the 13th European Individual Chess Championship in Plovdiv.

The main topic of the conference was “Chess in School”. The occasion for this press conference was the endorsement of the Declaration of the “Chess in School” program by the European Parliament on March 13, 2012 in Strasbourg. Mr. Danailov presented briefly the program and explained the audience – representatives from the media and the chess organizations that the necessary quota to endorse a declaration in the European Parliament is 378 and that this Declaration was signed by 415 MPs from all states and all parties. The Declaration was filed by five MPs from different states – Slavi Binev (Bulgaria), Dr.John Attard-Montalo (Malta), Mario Mauro (ITA), Nirj Deva (England) and Hannu Takkula (Finland).

Mr. Danailov stressed that chess is a sport, culture, game, science and education and that this program and the Declaration “elevate our sport to a new social status.” To the question about the benefits of the introduction of “Chess in School” Mr. Danailov said that besides developing a sense of creativity, intuition, memory, analytical and decision making skills, chess teaches us self-discipline and self control. Some aspects that that have particularly impressed the MEPs are the “socialization” and social adaptation of children to overcome racial and social differences, something especially important for children in the “Computer World” and “emigration Europe”, as well as the fact that “Chess brings people together” .

Armenian representative Gadik Ogganessian thanked Mr. Silvio Danailov for the “revolution” he made in the attitude of politicians and stressed that this has proved crucial for the introduction of the chess in schools in Armenia. Its implementation can practically be exercised in a classroom to work with the schoolboys and girls from the school.

In regards to the financing Mr. Danailov stressed that this project will be part of the system of education and that part of the financing will be granted from the European Council. During his numerous meetings and contacts he has noticed that most European states have increased their education funding. He gave France as an example, where the budget for education is three times higher than that for military purposes.

In connection to the 50th anniversary of the Chess Olympiad in Varna, Mr. Silvio Danailov, answering the question whether Bulgaria could organize a new Olympics pointed out that our application for Albena 2014 lost from Tromso, Norway / Tromso / since Norwegian Parliament had voted a budget of 120 million euro for this chess event. Bulgarian Chess Federation is ready to apply to host the 16th Chess Olympiad if any of the Bulgarian cities “show activity” in that respect.

The conference was closed at 16.30 EET.

http://www.eicc2012.eu/

Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
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