Kosteniuk visits Macedonia, day 1

Hello everybody!

Right now I’m in Skopje, the capital of FYROM (Makedonija). I was invited to Macedonia by the company Asseco (Асеко) in order to promote chess in the country. This company believes that chess can help kids perform better in school and later on in life. That’s why after the opening a chess club in Skopje which I visited today, they are also planning on starting chess programs in the schools of the Macedonia. They invited me to the country because they want to break the image of chess as a boring game for middle-aged people and bring more youth and kids to the game.

Upon arrival to Skopje I was greeted at the airport by Stojcevski Zoran, Stojkovski Dane and Mitkov Marjan (on the photo from left to right)

They offered me a very traditional Macedonian lunch.

After this wonderful lunch we went to visit a chess club “Gambit-Asseco” which was opened in January 2011. Right now there are 50 kids studying chess in this club. The goal of the Asseco Company to have 150-200 kids studying chess there. I was very pleased to see the walls of the club decorated with photos of mine.

I greeted the kids and the parents who came to the club and gave a small lecture, showing my recent wins from the Russian team championship. Tomorrow, May 3, I will give 2 simultaneous exhibitions – one to kids and the other one to the business representatives of Skopje, as well as many interviews about how cool the game of chess is.

Will keep you posted about my new discoveries of the country of Macedonia.

Best chess wishes,
Alexandra

Tags: macedonia
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