The President of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), Arkady Dvorkovich, visited Cabo Verde, Senegal and Morocco, where he held several high-level meetings and attended a number of chess events.
The first stop was Senegal, where Dvorkovich met with the country’s Minister of Sports, Lat Diop. The main topics of the discussion were the organization of international chess tournaments in Senegal, the training of the national Olympic chess team and the upcoming Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games. The Organizing Committee of Dakar 2026 and FIDE are discussing the possibility of including chess in this global sports forum program that will be the first IOC event to take place in Africa.
The FIDE President also attended chess lessons in one of the local schools “Aime Césaire” and an amateur chess tournament, where he met chess enthusiasts and talked with them about the game’s development on the African continent and worldwide.
The next stop on his trip was Cape Verde. On December 10, the FIDE President attended the closing ceremony of the Final Phase of the 7th Absolute Individual National Championship, which took place in Ponta do Sol, Santo Antão. Together with the President of the Cape Verde Olympic Committee, Filomena Fortes, Vice President of the African Chess Confederation, Nadezhda Marochkina and the President of the Cape Verde Chess Federation, Francisco Manuel Carapinha, Dvorkovich awarded the winners of the tournament.
The top seed, IM Mariano Ortega Amaralle, dominated the competition, winning all nine games. The champion finished two points ahead of FM Diogo Alho (7/9), who won silver. David Mirulla netted 6/9 and took bronze.
“2024 is a very important year for the International Chess Federation as it will celebrate its 100-year anniversary. We will have events all around the world to celebrate it. The most important one will be the Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary. I hope your team will be fully prepared to fight there. But there will be many other festivals and tournaments to celebrate. And I hope one of them will be held here, in Cape Verde,” Dvorkovich said in his speech.
Then, the FIDE President flew to the capital of Morocco Rabat, where he had a meeting with the organizers of the traditional Casablanca Chess Week and discussed the program of the 2024 edition. Scheduled for May 2024, this chess forum will be a part of the FIDE 100th anniversary celebrations.
