The 2020 Asian University Chess Championship (2020 AUCC) will take place from 14th to 29th December with the first round of matches for the women category taking place on 15th December. This is the first ever AUSF online sport event, organized by the National University Sports Federation of Iran under the auspices of the Asian University Sports Federation in cooperation with the Asian Chess Federation.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a huge disruption to all AUSF events in 2020. However, AUSF has turned to bringing events online to keep up with the sustainability of the Asian university sports movement, and make 2020 AUCC a reality.

This championship attracted many participants, including 85 players and 17 officials representing 13 national university sports federations, with 37 female individual players and 8 female teams registered in Women's category, while 48 male players and 12 male teams in Men's category. Participating in the tournament are players from China, Indonesia, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mongolia, Oman, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

The Opening Ceremony and General Technical Meeting took place online on 14th December, with representative from the Iran Organizing Committee, AUSF and ACF to deliver welcome speeches through ZOOM.

Hosting the inaugural online Asian University Chess Championship, Prof. Mojtaba Sadighi, Deputy Minister and President of the Students Affairs Organization welcomed players at the Opening Ceremony and said “This international event can be a very successful example to organizing more international activities in the future.”

Prof. Mojtaba Sadighi, Deputy Minister and President of the Students Affairs Organization

Mr. Seetow Cheng Fave, the AUSF representative mentioned the recent increase in popularity of chess could be attributed to a Netflix series - The Queens Gambit – which was released in October. According to some entertainment reports, 63 million households have watched the show, inquiries for chess sets has gone up 250％, Google search for “how to play chess” has hit an all time high in 9 years, and the number of new players on chess.com has increased five fold.

Mr. Seetow Cheng Fave, AUSF Treasurer

Asian Chess Federation General Secretary Hisham Al Taher of the United Arab Emirates lauded the cooperation with the AUSF. Dr. Hadi Bashiran, president of the National University Sports Federation of Iran, declared the tournament open. Former Women’s World Champion Xie Jun of China also graced the opening ceremony together with ACF Technical Delegate Casto Abundo of the Philippines, Chief Arbiter Abdulrahim Mahdi of the UAE and Tournament Director Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh of Iran.

Dr. Hadi Bashiran (right), president of the IUSF. Mr. Mehrdad Pahlvanzadeh (left) of Iran, ACF Treasurer.

With more people taking an interest in chess, 2020 AUCC will be a great opportunity to further promote this sport.

(Source: AUSF Media Committee)