News of the 2022 Global Chess Festival has reached everyone from the school desks of Georgia to the giant screen in New York’s Times Square
Celebration of chess filled the National Gallery on 8 October for Judit Polgár’s eighth Global Chess Festival, which brought together participants from 15 countries in Budapest. More than 3000 people attended the festival and tens of thousands followed the events online. News of the festival spread overseas, with all of New York watching on the giant screens in Times Square as the greatest female player of all time made her winning move in an iconic game against the current world champion. This year, the organizers aimed to raise awareness about the importance of the role of girls in various scientific fields.
The theme of this year’s festival was Women in Chess, Women in Science.
In the program of the same title, Australian university lecturer and
chess grandmaster David Smerdon spoke about the relationship between
chess and gender in his lecture “Facts and Myths”. International master
mathematician Rita Atkins gave a presentation about how single-sex
schooling increases girls’ confidence and interest in STEM subjects and
how this influences their decisions to continue their education. Network researcher Albert-László Barabási spoke about the role of women in academia. NATE (Women in Science Association) and the festival’s main sponsor, Morgan Stanley’s SMARTIZ program, support girls’ careers in science, IT and engineering.
In addition to the inspiring presentations and roundtable discussions, families were given an insight into the Judit Polgár Method,
which aims to develop playful, inspirational and complex skills for
children aged 4-10 through chess in traditional educational settings. In
addition to the interactive adult and children’s programs and craft
activities, participants could try out robot programming, take part in a
talent assessment at the Morgan Stanley Chess Café,
while the “classic” program of the festival, the Simultaneous, offered
the chance to test their skills against Judit Polgár and the chess
Olympiad and World Age Group Champion Zsóka Gaál.
Budapest will host the 2024 Chess Olympiad. In connection with this, a mixed doubles “Inspiration Cup” tournament was organized with the participation of prominent players from the present and the recent past, such as world No 7 Anish Giri, which was won by Team Dracarys (Sofia Polgár and Yona Kosashvili)
In the framework of the festival, the international conference “Chess in Education” was held in cooperation with the European Chess Union (ECU), and this
year’s patron, Georgia’s Minister of Education and Science, Dr. Mikheil
Chkhenkeli, in his speech, underlined “Chess is proven to be one of the
most powerful tools we can give children to succeed in school and
life.”
In the closing panel discussion of the festival, Dana Reizniece-Ozola,
CEO of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), Judit Polgár, the best
female player in chess history, Gábor Orbán, CEO of Richter Gedeon and
Norbert Fogarasi, head of the Budapest office of lead sponsor Morgan
Stanley, shared their thoughts on what companies can do to give girls
the attention and opportunities they deserve to learn STEM skills and
get into science.
“At the festival, we explored the opportunities for girls in STEM fields
from several angles. I believe that if they have the motivation and the
support of their environment, i.e. society, there is nothing impossible
for them. The role of chess in education is growing worldwide, and the
experts and educators who spoke at this year’s conference contributed
greatly to this. Chess has been successfully used in the education of
millions of children from preschool age upwards and has proven to be an
effective tool for children with autism. This game can be
integrated into education in many different ways, in many different
subjects, and our aim is to make these programs known and used in more
countries in the future”, highlighted the main organizer, Judit Polgár.
The program for the 2022 festival can be found at the links below:
Women in chess Women in science presentations:
https://youtu.be/P_lhrgSqDyc
“Chess in Education” international conference:
https://youtu.be/iaNNRy_DcjY
“The Inspiration Cup” hand and brain match:
https://youtu.be/1PfH59HBb-g
Video summary about the 2022 Global Chess Festival:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG1Bw9MvsYM
