World Chess Day celebrated on July 20

July 21, 2021

Annually, on 20^th July International Chess Day is celebrated. This day also marks the date of establishment of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) in Paris in the year 1924.

About Chess

In the fifth century Chess was invented in India and was named “Chaturanga”. Chess is one of the oldest games and it is a very popular game which is played globally. Chess helps is developing skills such as strategy, tactics as well as visual memory.

About World Chess Day

This year’s Chess day will also mark the 97^th anniversary of FIDE. FIDE was founded 20^th July, 1924, at the eighth summer Olympic Games which was held in Paris. On July 20 in 1966 International Chess Day began and this day also coincided with the foundation day of FIDE. On 12^th December, 2019 the UN General Assembly designated July 20 as World Chess Day. The headquarter of FIDE is in Lausanne, Switzerland and Arkady Dvorkovich is the current president.

World Rankings of Indian chess players

In 2021, in the men’s category, four Indian players are among the top 100 players in the world with Vishwanathan Anand being ranked 16^th globally. In the women’s category, India has seven players in the top 100 players in the world with Koneru Humpy ranked 3^rd.