Chess to be a Candidate for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

[Wayne Komer]

Chess to be a Candidate for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

February 15, 2019

From the official FIDE site:

http://fide.com/component/content/ar...aris-2024.html

The President of the International Chess Federation Arkady Dvorkovich has officially launched a campaign for chess to be included as a sport at the Paris Olympic Games 2024. Alongside with the President of the French Chess Federation Bachar Kouatly, the French NOC President Mr. Denis Masseglia and officials of the Paris 2024 Organising Committee attended the ceremony. The attendees played some games with the International Master Sophie Millet, six times French Champion.

The official launch took place on Tuesday 12th February in Paris, the birthplace of the International Chess Federation, where it was founded on 20th July 1924. Paris was also the venue of the 1st international chess tournament organised by FIDE, an organization that has now affiliated federations from 189 countries.

Chess was an exhibition sport at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney but has never featured on the full programme. Dvorkovich, the former Russian Deputy Prime Minister who was also the head of organisation at the Soccer World Cup in 2018, hopes to make it happen this time. Paris 2024 are due to submit their recommendations for new sports before the International Olympic Committee Executive Board meets in Lausanne from March 26 to 28. The IOC Session in June will then offer provisional approval before the new additions are officially confirmed by the Executive Board in December 2020.

The inclusion of chess in the Olympics would be an outstanding symbolic gift for FIDE’s 100th anniversary in 2024.

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Comment

Peter Doggers - To make chess an Olympic sport is an uphill battle. Throughout his 23-year reign as FIDE president, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov tried and failed to convince International Olympic Committee members to consider including chess, but remained optimistic. After failing to make a stand for the 2020 Summer Olympics, in 2015 he told Chinese media that chess should be included in the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, describing curling as “chess on ice.”

So far, there has always been strong opposition inside the IOC and chess never stood a serious chance. The closest it got was in the year 2000, a year after the committee recognised chess as a sport. At the Sydney Olympics, Vishy Anand and Alexei Shirov played each other as part of an exhibition event. A request for including chess at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics was rejected.

These days, there might be a different route for chess to become truly Olympic. Back in August 2017 Tony Estanguet, co-president of the Paris Olympic bid committee, said that he will hold talks with eSports representatives and the IOC about the possibility of gaming joining the 2024 program.

It wouldn't be completely strange. At the Asian Games in 2018 eSports was a demonstration sport and in 2022 it will be a full sport. With the enormous growth of Twitch streams in the last two years, online chess has definitely become (some sort of) an eSport.

A final decision on chess and Paris 2024 won't happen before the end of the the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

https://www.chess.com/news/view/ches...-olympic-games

[Alex Ferreira]

Hi,

I dont think I will ever understand the obsession so many people have with making chess an Olympic Sport. Don't want to get into the whole "is chess a sport?" debate but I think it's absurd that chess should even be considered for the Olympics.

If chess were to ever make it into the Olympic Games, it would change the sorting of top level chess events as we know them. The Olympiad we currently have would become one of the Olympic Events, some of the fans would then pick one over the other, etc...
The current status of the Chess Olympiad is supreme. Alongside the World Championship Match, it is one of two top events. It brings everyone together for a chess festival. It is a beautiful event. True that it is held occasionally in Siberia which is disappointing but it is OUR (chess world's) event. No doubt it'd be much better to have the Olympiad in Paris, Tokyo, Beijing, Sydney, London, but would we have it there at the same scale as our current Olympiad? No way! Why on Earth would we want to diminish ourselves to "one of 2823784785" events at the Olympic Games? Where is the prestige in that? Who are we trying to get recognition from? Why? Chess is already THE mind game / challenge, to chess players and non-chess players alike. Chess is being taught across the world now to kids as an extra curricular like never before. In a few select cases, in schools as part of their programs. There are better ways to get chess exposure to non-chess players, without us degrading ourselves to joining the Olympics. Chess in schools being the front-runner.

Alex F.

[Joshua Guo]

Agree with Alex, don't care either way.

IOC, just like any institution, is a business and only really cares about money.
And we all know there is not much money in chess.

[Kerry Liles]

And, to top that all off the IOC is a rather *corrupt* organization (like many large international organizations that oversee large sums of money and huge fan base).
Until the last FIDE election it was clear that FIDE followed that corrupt model if at a modest level of $.
The latest FIDE executive at least is giving the appearance that those days are over. I would not like to be associated with the IOC. The olympics as defined by
the IOC is a purely pocket-lining experience that exploits athletes and millions of sport fans around the world.

[Bob Armstrong]

Agree with Alex, Josh & Kerry.

Would a "Voting Member" please bring a motion to the next meeting of voting members:

"That CFC does NOT support the current FIDE executive initiative to make chess an Olympic Sport".

Would the voting member willing to put this motion forward please be totally transparent and post all interactions here on CT for both CFC members, and the chess public, to follow the debate.

CT'ers should then feel free to submit to our designated point person on this issue, their briefs to him/her, copied here on CT.

Bob A (Former CFC Voting Member (Then Governor) for 5 yrs.; CFC Public Relations Coordinator for 3 of those 5 years).

[Fred McKim]

I don't agree with Alex ob Bob on this one. I think Tennis is a good example. It has become an Olympic sport, but hasn't changed the major Tennis events. If Chess was to be a demonstration sport, it would likely be a 16 player KO or something. I think what would be a benefit is that it would expose itself to a worldwide audience of non-players or casual players.

[Wayne Komer]

Chess to be a Candidate for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

February 21, 2019

What other sports are being considered for this Olympics?

From The Times today and given here without comment:

"Breakdancing has been proposed as a new sport for the Paris 2024 Olympics but squash once more missed out.

Organisers said breakdancing would help make the Olympics “more urban” and “more artistic”. Skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing, which will all make their debut in the Tokyo Games next year, will also be proposed to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

It is the fourth consecutive time that squash has failed in a bid to be recognised as an Olympic sport, and the World Squash federation reacted saying there was “great disappointment” at the latest blow to its hopes."

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/s...-out-srtz9bstx

[Vlad Drkulec]

Agree with Alex, Josh & Kerry.

Would a "Voting Member" please bring a motion to the next meeting of voting members:

"That CFC does NOT support the current FIDE executive initiative to make chess an Olympic Sport".

Would the voting member willing to put this motion forward please be totally transparent and post all interactions here on CT for both CFC members, and the public, to follow the debate.

CT'ers should then feel free to submit to our designated point person on this issue, their briefs to him/her, copied here on CT.
kob A (Former CFC Voting Member (Then Governor) for 5 yrs.; CFC Public Relations Coordinator for 3 of those 5 years).

Why would the CFC executive support such a motion? What useful function would such a motion fulfill if passed? If our FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, who it seems to me is doing a good job, were successful it would likely result in government support and more sponsorship for chess in Canada, since eventually, Olympic medals would be on the line. Opposing it would merely label us as Luddites intent on upsetting the potential deal with the IOC and maintaining the current status quo. We can always retreat from the precipice later and decline to participate but that would not seem to me to be a productive path forward. I would most certainly not agree to put such an item on the agenda as it is well outside the scope of the CFC's mandate and in fact, would be in opposition to our mandate to promote and encourage the study of chess.

[Henri Hughes]

Why would the CFC executive support such a motion? What useful function would such a motion fulfill if passed? If our FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, who it seems to me is doing a good job, were successful it would likely result in government support and more sponsorship for chess in Canada, since eventually, Olympic medals would be on the line. Opposing it would merely label us as Luddites intent on upsetting the potential deal with the IOC and maintaining the current status quo. We can always retreat from the precipice later and decline to participate but that would not seem to me to be a productive path forward. I would most certainly not agree to put such an item on the agenda as it is well outside the scope of the CFC's mandate and in fact, would be in opposition to our mandate to promote and encourage the study of chess.

I highly agree with you Vlad
as a junior ill be growing up in the next generation of chess players and id love to see that happen chess should be on the rise we should support this movement as much as we can

[Vlad Drkulec]

I highly agree with you Vlad
as a junior ill be growing up in the next generation of chess players and id love to see that happen chess should be on the rise we should support this movement as much as we can

I know that the IOC has its issues. We still watch the Olympics and count up the medals.

[Ian Findlay]

I would love to see chess as an Olympic sport. It would give chess some great publicity. Hopefully everyone would pass the drug tests. Maybe our team would even get some government funding.

[Henri Hughes]

I would love to see chess as an Olympic sport. It would give chess some great publicity. Hopefully everyone would pass the drug tests. Maybe our team would even get some government funding.

the government funding would be another big bonus, we could afford to sent our players with out having them spending a cent

[Larry Bevand]

From the FIDE website...posted today:

The Paris 2024 organizers have chosen not to include chess in the program of the Summer Olympic Games, nominating four other sports instead. The IOC will consider this proposal during the next meeting of its executive board at the end of March. A final decision will be taken by December 2020.

FIDE accepts the decision of the Paris 2024 organizing committee and will continue to aim at reaching full recognition of chess in all countries. An important step consists now in achieving the involvement of our sport in youth and continental games.

FIDE was founded in Paris in the summer of 1924. President Arkady Dvorkovich stresses that the 100th anniversary will be duly celebrated in the French capital anyway.