The European Chess Academy has signed an agreement with the Universities of the MGU Lomonosov University and the University of Primorska / Faculty of Management on the preparation and conduct of a student chess program, modeled on known American universities (University of Dallas – University of St. Louis - ...).
For us, the year 2018 is extremely successful.
The European Chess Academy organized numerous events in 2018, supported numerous young chess players and firmly established itself in the domestic and international chess environment as a distinguished and respected partner.
Among the tournaments, we should mention in particular two: the World Senior Championship (November, Bled) and the first memorial of the great Slovenian grandmaster Albin Planincn (November 24, Bled), which we are particularly proud of. In May, we organized an attractive duel between Maribor Alexander Beljavsky and Evgeny Svešnikov in Maribor.
Nona Gaprindashvili is a living chess legend. The Grandmaster comes from Georgia, the country which produced numerous women masters and champions with Nona herself being the pioneer of the so called Georgian women chess school. She was born during the Second World War - May 3rd 1941 and is today already 77 years old. Nevertheless she is still as vital and full of energy, as she was throughout her whole career. And what a career it was! She is a five times Women World Champion, she was undefeated from 1962, when she dethroned Bykova Elisaveta, up until 1978, when her fellow Georgian, then 17 years old Maia Chiburdanidze forced her to proudly pass on her role of a leading champion. Nona is a proud winner of 11 gold Olympic medals, if we count only the team championships. She was the first women awarded by the title of a chess Grandmaster for her remarkable successes, which she achieved in the middle of the seventies. Today she still loves to play chess – mostly in exhibitions and senior championships. Few days ago she became a World senior women champion – for the fifth time, the same amount of titles she also holds in European championships. Her achievements go on for days. We were honored to talk to the legendary champion during the celebratory dinner, organized in her honor in famous Slovenian businessman Janez Skrabec’s villa, where Nona celebrated her new title.