Arkady Dvorkovich, new president of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) told Việt Nam News about the Việt Nam Chess on his occasion visited HCM City and attended the award ceremony of 9th HDBank International Chess Tournament 2019

You are now touring Asian counties in an effort to promote chess and to have it officially included in the Olympic Games in 2024 in Paris. Why did you choose to visit Việt Nam?

I chose Việt Nam because it is a beautiful, peaceful, gentle, safe country with strong economic development. The country’s sports have also been developing rapidly. In football, Việt Nam is ranked in the top 100 of the world. The country, which ranked 10th in the world at the Chess Olympiad 2018, has many high-ranking chess players.

After nine seasons, the HDBank International Chess Tournament has been able to connect all ages and ethnicities around the world. The tournaments have always received attention from the World Chess Federation (FIDE) and its president.

Việt Nam is the first destination on a trip to Asian countries. I hope the success of the HDBank chess tournaments will have a positive impact on the world chess movement.

I also believe that Việt Nam will become a global ‘chess power’.

You was elected FIDE president last October. Can you describe the pressures as well as the advantages that you faced?

FIDE is a huge federation. We unite 189 countries in our federation. Key challenges are to put people together to set the targets that everyone should achieve, to provide efficient spending of our resources, to raise new professionals to improve human capital and to develop chess all around the world. Those are the most important tasks.

Advantage is that I can see different cultures, I can see different people, how people are working on the ground to develop chess, to develop the most important intellectual activity in the world, and to contribute to developing society. It is just a good thing to do and I believe in it, but still we have to do a lot. Our team is all our partners, it’s all our chess family to bring chess to a new level of visibility and new level of development

What do you think about the status chess in Việt Nam?

Việt Nam’s chess is developing very quickly. Many young players who are participating in the big tournaments. Hopefully they will improve in the future, and will compete for the medals as well as the potential. To do that should be more trainers, more tournaments, chess academies should be established in Việt Nam and hopefully we can help with that.

How do you think about the HDBank chess tournaments contribution into the development of Việt Nam Chess?

HDBank organises the chess tournament for 9 years in a row. It was growing with time from a relatively small tournament to a bigger one, probably one of the biggest in the region, and one of the most important in the world. I appreciate what HDBank is doing in partnership with the Vietnamese Chess Federation and most local authorities and the government and the more banks that follow the example of HDBank, the better chess will be all around the world.

What are the key factors that could enable chess to be officially included in the Olympic Games in 2024 in Paris?

We will celebrate our 100-year anniversary of FIDE in 2024.

 FIDE was established in Paris, so we will have celebration of our birthday. Anyway, there will be a big chess festival, and I do not think it is really important whether chess will be an official part of the Olympics.

We will be around the Olympics; it’s the same time.

The more important thing is that people will play chess in Paris in 2024.

It is not about medals. It is not about prizes. It is about recognition of chess as a fun sport, an intellectual sport, a nice activity for everyone.

 But we are working with international committees, federations and international Olympics Committees to get recognition of chess as an Olympic sport. The latest news that came today is that chess will be an official part of the Asian Olympic games, for the next Asian Olympic game. It is a very important development and we are happy that the Asian Olympic committee made this decision. — VNS