PROMO FIDE World Schools Team Championship 2025
Costa Rica Takes Center Stage for School Chess in the Americas
San José, Costa Rica — August 11, 2026
Chess doesn't usually make morning sports radio. This week it did.
Ahead of the American Continental Stage of the World Schools Team Championship (WSTC), three of the people behind the event sat down with Teletica Deporte Radio's "Tren Deportivo" — and a 15-minute slot turned into a 36-minute conversation. That tells you something about how much there is to say.
The tournament
From August 11 to 16, the DoubleTree Hilton Cariari becomes home to the best school chess on the continent: 29 school teams from across the Americas, competing for a place in a global grand final against the other continents. The tournament is organized by FIDE and the International School Chess Federation (ISCF), together with the Costa Rican Chess Federation and the Chess Confederation for the Americas (CCA), with the backing of the Costa Rican Institute of Sport and Recreation (ICODER). It runs under the banner of the 2026 Year of Chess in Education, an initiative supported by Freedom Holding Corp.
Andrei Vodianov, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the ISCF, explained where the federation came from. It was founded barely two years ago on an idea from its president, Timur Turlov, a father of six who wanted to promote school chess worldwide the way it's done in Kazakhstan. FIDE's General Assembly approved it in 2024.
Last year the ISCF ran its first WSTC in Washington, D.C. - a single global championship. This year the format changed. Instead of bringing the whole world to one place, the championship splits into four continental stages, opening the door to far more countries. Africa's stage was held in Cape Town last month. Costa Rica is the American stage.
Each host nation gets three teams. Costa Rica's spots go to Colegio Humboldt, San Francisco de Asís (from Guápiles) and Colegio Británico — the top three from a national stage that drew more than thirty schools, played for the first time in a new team format: four players per school, with at least one boy and at least one girl on every team.
Accreditation opens August 11. The opening ceremony and Round 1 follow on Wednesday, August 12, with rounds running through August 15 — Mother's Day in Costa Rica — and the closing ceremony that Saturday. Continental champions advance to a grand final in December, staged alongside the FIDE World Blitz and Rapid Championship, where players like Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura compete.
The conference
The competition is only half of it. On August 12, the ISCF hosts the Smart Moves Americas Summit — a conference of panels with world-class experts on chess as an educational tool, including a roundtable, "Playing the Long Game," and a session pointedly titled "One Board, Millions of Classrooms." It's the kind of event that normally costs at least $100 to attend. Here it's free and open to anyone who wants to come.
"They're covering everything," said Mauricio Arias Santana, who chairs the Education Commission of the Chess Confederation for the Americas. "So the impact reaches everyone."
Registration links are on the Costa Rican Chess Federation's social channels - the link.
Why it matters
Behind the boards and the panels is a bigger idea and that's really what the three guests came to talk about.
For Luis Quirós Rojas, president of the Costa Rican Chess Federation, the headline is simple: chess is the fastest-growing sport in the country's schools, according to official statistics. But the pitch to educators isn't about adding to their plate.
"We're not telling teachers, 'I want you to do more' — they already do a great deal," Quirós said. "We're telling them: here's a tool to make your job easier."
He pushed back on the old playground wisdom that chess makes kids smart. "Is a child fast because he runs? No — he's fast because he built the ability by running," he said. "In the same way, we want every child who goes to school in Costa Rica to build abilities by playing. And the Ministry of Education is telling us: yes, come in, there's room."
Arias, an international master before he turned to promoting the game, spoke about it in personal terms.
"I have a good life. For me and my family, none of it would have been possible without chess," he said. "I don't know what hole I'd be in — but we certainly wouldn't be having this conversation."
He also captured why so many countries are watching Costa Rica right now. "A few years ago we had to go to countries and convince them this was worth doing," he said. "Today they're not asking whether it works. They're asking how to implement it — what's the method." Costa Rica, he added, is "putting itself at the head of the continent" on chess in education: curricula are being written, and a pilot is about to launch in several schools.
For Vodianov, the reason to keep going is more personal. At the Asian stage, a team of four girls from a very rural region of India played the first time any of them had ever left their city. "Situations like that give us the drive to keep going," he said. (The story is on the ISCF's Instagram.)
Arias left the radio audience with the line that summed it up best.
"Everything we're talking about here is an investment in talent," he said. "And to be clear — not chess talent. Talent as a country."
_______________________________________________________________________
The World Schools Team Championship — American Continental Stage runs August 11–16, 2026, at the DoubleTree Hilton Cariari, Costa Rica. Organized by FIDE and the International School Chess Federation with the Costa Rican Chess Federation and the Chess Confederation for the Americas, endorsed by ICODER, under the 2026 Year of Chess in Education supported by Freedom Holding Corp.
San José, Costa Rica — August 11, 2026
Chess doesn't usually make morning sports radio. This week it did.
Ahead of the American Continental Stage of the World Schools Team Championship (WSTC), three of the people behind the event sat down with Teletica Deporte Radio's "Tren Deportivo" — and a 15-minute slot turned into a 36-minute conversation. That tells you something about how much there is to say.
The tournament
From August 11 to 16, the DoubleTree Hilton Cariari becomes home to the best school chess on the continent: 29 school teams from across the Americas, competing for a place in a global grand final against the other continents. The tournament is organized by FIDE and the International School Chess Federation (ISCF), together with the Costa Rican Chess Federation and the Chess Confederation for the Americas (CCA), with the backing of the Costa Rican Institute of Sport and Recreation (ICODER). It runs under the banner of the 2026 Year of Chess in Education, an initiative supported by Freedom Holding Corp.
Andrei Vodianov, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the ISCF, explained where the federation came from. It was founded barely two years ago on an idea from its president, Timur Turlov, a father of six who wanted to promote school chess worldwide the way it's done in Kazakhstan. FIDE's General Assembly approved it in 2024.
Last year the ISCF ran its first WSTC in Washington, D.C. - a single global championship. This year the format changed. Instead of bringing the whole world to one place, the championship splits into four continental stages, opening the door to far more countries. Africa's stage was held in Cape Town last month. Costa Rica is the American stage.
Each host nation gets three teams. Costa Rica's spots go to Colegio Humboldt, San Francisco de Asís (from Guápiles) and Colegio Británico — the top three from a national stage that drew more than thirty schools, played for the first time in a new team format: four players per school, with at least one boy and at least one girl on every team.
Accreditation opens August 11. The opening ceremony and Round 1 follow on Wednesday, August 12, with rounds running through August 15 — Mother's Day in Costa Rica — and the closing ceremony that Saturday. Continental champions advance to a grand final in December, staged alongside the FIDE World Blitz and Rapid Championship, where players like Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura compete.
The conference
The competition is only half of it. On August 12, the ISCF hosts the Smart Moves Americas Summit — a conference of panels with world-class experts on chess as an educational tool, including a roundtable, "Playing the Long Game," and a session pointedly titled "One Board, Millions of Classrooms." It's the kind of event that normally costs at least $100 to attend. Here it's free and open to anyone who wants to come.
"They're covering everything," said Mauricio Arias Santana, who chairs the Education Commission of the Chess Confederation for the Americas. "So the impact reaches everyone."
Registration links are on the Costa Rican Chess Federation's social channels - the link.
Why it matters
Behind the boards and the panels is a bigger idea and that's really what the three guests came to talk about.
For Luis Quirós Rojas, president of the Costa Rican Chess Federation, the headline is simple: chess is the fastest-growing sport in the country's schools, according to official statistics. But the pitch to educators isn't about adding to their plate.
"We're not telling teachers, 'I want you to do more' — they already do a great deal," Quirós said. "We're telling them: here's a tool to make your job easier."
He pushed back on the old playground wisdom that chess makes kids smart. "Is a child fast because he runs? No — he's fast because he built the ability by running," he said. "In the same way, we want every child who goes to school in Costa Rica to build abilities by playing. And the Ministry of Education is telling us: yes, come in, there's room."
Arias, an international master before he turned to promoting the game, spoke about it in personal terms.
"I have a good life. For me and my family, none of it would have been possible without chess," he said. "I don't know what hole I'd be in — but we certainly wouldn't be having this conversation."
He also captured why so many countries are watching Costa Rica right now. "A few years ago we had to go to countries and convince them this was worth doing," he said. "Today they're not asking whether it works. They're asking how to implement it — what's the method." Costa Rica, he added, is "putting itself at the head of the continent" on chess in education: curricula are being written, and a pilot is about to launch in several schools.
For Vodianov, the reason to keep going is more personal. At the Asian stage, a team of four girls from a very rural region of India played the first time any of them had ever left their city. "Situations like that give us the drive to keep going," he said. (The story is on the ISCF's Instagram.)
Arias left the radio audience with the line that summed it up best.
"Everything we're talking about here is an investment in talent," he said. "And to be clear — not chess talent. Talent as a country."
_______________________________________________________________________
The World Schools Team Championship — American Continental Stage runs August 11–16, 2026, at the DoubleTree Hilton Cariari, Costa Rica. Organized by FIDE and the International School Chess Federation with the Costa Rican Chess Federation and the Chess Confederation for the Americas, endorsed by ICODER, under the 2026 Year of Chess in Education supported by Freedom Holding Corp.
