The International Chess Federation is excited to announce the third Intercontinental Online Chess Championship for Prisoners, to be held from October 11-13, 2023. As a part of the Chess for Freedom program and the continuation of the International Championship among prisoners first held back in 2019, the event aims at introducing chess as a tool for education and social inclusion in prisons worldwide.
The championship, organized by FIDE and the Cook County (Chicago, IL, USA) Sheriff’s Office and hosted by Chess.com, is open for teams made of 4 players in three categories – men’s, women’s and juvenile correctional facilities.
“We started the Chess for Freedom program in May 2021 with an exhibition online tournament with four participating countries. Since then, the event has rapidly grown, as in October 2022, the Intercontinental Online Chess Championship for Prisoners boasted 85+ teams from 46 countries, becoming the largest event of its kind. And we will keep growing this year, providing an opportunity for a bigger number of inmates to play chess with their peers across the globe,” said FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich.
“I am pleased to continue the special partnership between my office and FIDE by hosting the third Intercontinental Online Chess Championship for Prisoners at the Cook County Jail,” said Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart. “I look forward to welcoming returning participants from chess communities worldwide, as well as teams who will be joining us for the first time.”
Deputy Chair of the FIDE Management Board Dana Reizniece-Ozola added that FIDE’s role is not limited to hosting chess events: “It’s not only about organizing tournaments. Our plans include the development of the training methodology, awareness-raising activities and post-incarceration educational programmes. We are inviting new countries to join us, even if they are not running chess programs in their prisons yet. We are ready to assist with any advice, sharing best practices, and proving that chess is an excellent educational tool for everyone.”
The tournament will be played online and streamed on FIDE’s Youtube channel. The broadcast will not only cover the games but also include interviews with special guests of the event – FIDE officials, government officers, members of the penitentiary administration and policymakers sharing the best practices of introducing chess to inmates, as well as former convicts proving from their own experience the positive impact of the game on prisoners.
Each country can have up to three teams in the event:
– main team
– team representing a female correctional facility with all four female team players
– team representing juvenoid correctional facility (under the age of 20).
The participating countries can also submit more teams to the waiting list as the tournament organizers might need additional teams to complete the 8-team field for each group.
Each correctional facility shall submit an application via an online registration form: forms.office.com/g/xPqGaWbR4Q
The registration deadline is September 22, 2023. There is no entry fee.
Contact person:
Mikhail Korenman
Chess Program Coordinator at Cook County Department of Corrections,
FIDE International Chess Organizer and Member of FIDE Social Commission
E-mail: Mikhail.Korenman@ccsheriff.org
Tel.: 1-785-906-0402
About the Chess for Freedom program
The rights and opportunities of self-realization and development for people in imprisonment are essential prerequisites in order to consciously build their future after liberation. Access to training and learning, as well as to quality ways of socializing, could give a strong motivation to change for the better.
To support and promote this line of work, FIDE and the Cook County Sheriff’s Office (Chicago, USA) have launched the “Chess for Freedom” program. This project kicked off in May 2021 with an online conference and an exhibition tournament with four participating countries. Later on, in October 2021, the first Intercontinental Online Chess Championship for Prisoners – a much larger competition with the participation of tens of prisons – was held. The 2nd edition of the event, organized in October 2022, attracted more than 85 teams from 46 countries. As a next step, in May 2023, the Chess for Freedom Conference was organized in Chicago, USA. It attracted 40 participants, including FIDE officials, representatives of national chess federations and experts involved in chess programs for inmates, who discussed concepts and approaches to using chess as a rehabilitation tool for incarcerated people.
In recent years, we have witnessed the successful introduction of chess in prisons through different educative programs in many countries. They demonstrated that chess improves behaviour, helping to reduce inmate violence and developing communication skills while promoting the positive use of leisure time. Chess also drastically improves decision-making and fights depression, stress and anxiety.
