New Continent on the Board: Costa Rica to Host a Stage of the World Schools Team Chess Championship

The capital of Costa Rica will host the American continental stage of the World Schools Team Chess Championship — one of the flagship projects of FIDE and the International School Chess Federation (ISCF) under the “Year of Chess in Education” program. The tournament will be the third stage of the 2026 global cycle.

For the First Time, an International Championship for Schoolchildren Comes to the Americas

Costa Rica will host the American continental stage of the World Schools Team Chess Championship (WSTC) — the world chess championship for school teams. The tournament will run from August 11 to 16 in San José and will bring together representatives from nearly thirty countries across North, Central, and South America, as well as the Caribbean, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Panama, and other countries in the region.

This is the first time a WSTC continental tournament has been held in the Americas. The championship kicked off in spring with the Asian stage, in which 26 school teams from 19 Asian countries competed; the team from Uzbekistan won the tournament. In July, the championship's African stage was held for the first time, in Cape Town (South Africa), featuring 26 school teams from more than twenty African countries.

The American stage will be the season's third continental tournament. The winner will earn a place in the WSTC grand final, to be held in December. Following the American stage, Europe's strongest school teams will meet from September 28 to October 3 in Tsaghkadzor, Armenia.

Program of the American Stage of WSTC

The competition will be held over eight rounds under the Swiss system: each school is represented by a team of four main players plus one reserve. Every team must include at least one boy and one girl (except for single-sex schools). Schoolchildren aged 8 to 14 are eligible to participate.

In addition to the sporting program, the organizers have prepared educational events. The tournament will host the international conference Smart Moves Americas: Governments That Think Ahead on August 12. It will bring together representatives of government bodies, educational institutions, chess federations, and international organizations. Participants will discuss practical mechanisms for integrating chess into education, share experience implementing national programs, and explore new models of international cooperation.

About the International School Chess Federation

The championship is organized jointly by FIDE and the International School Chess Federation (ISCF). The organization has existed since September 2024 as FIDE's official partner for developing school chess worldwide.

ISCF's core mission is to integrate chess into the educational process. The federation helps introduce chess into school curricula, organizes international competitions and educational conferences, runs teacher-training programs, and facilitates the exchange of experience between schools and national federations.

ISCF's president is Timur Turlov, founder and CEO of Freedom Holding Corp. In recent years, the combined investment by Freedom Holding Corp. and Turlov personally in the development of chess has reached $75 million: the funds go toward organizing international tournaments, training young chess players, and developing school programs and digital infrastructure.

Freedom Holding Corp.'s shares have been trading on Nasdaq for nearly seven years, and the company's market capitalization has exceeded $9 billion. According to Forbes' global ranking, the entrepreneur's net worth stood at $6.4 billion as of early August 2026.

How Timur Turlov Promotes Chess

Timur Turlov has headed the Kazakhstan Chess Federation since 2023, when he made the development of children's and school chess one of the organization's key priorities. By the start of 2026, the “Chess in Education” program was running in more than 1,500 schools across Kazakhstan, with more than 60,000 students regularly playing chess at school. ISCF plans to scale this experience internationally through a network of continental competitions and educational initiatives.

In summer 2026, Timur Turlov put forward his candidacy for FIDE president. The entrepreneur intends to increase the stability and transparency ofFIDE's operations, develop the federation's digital infrastructure, and strengthen cooperation between national chess organizations. To work out a more detailed FIDE development program, the businessman is holding consultations with national chess federations to take their proposals and needs into account.

In spring 2026, Freedom Holding Corp. acquired the German company ChessBase — the world's leading developer of chess software and owner of one of the most comprehensive game databases. The company plans to invest around €5 million in developing the platform, with the funds allocated to implementing artificial intelligence technologies and creating new educational services.