At the World Amateur Chess Championship held in Mellieħa, Mongolia were the most successful on the medals list, with three golds, followed by Kazakhstan with one gold and two silver medals. The two delegations duly celebrated at the closing ceremony by donning their respective national dress. The Malta 2022 edition broke the record for highest number of foreign players ever at a World Amateur Chess Championship. In total, the event brought together 197 players from 51 federations, including 27 title-holders, who played a total of 856 games over 9 days. The total prize fund was a record €15,000. The top 50 games of each round were live broadcast on chess24 and Lichess.
The official website includes round-by-round reports, a selection of photos from each round and the closing ceremony, video interviews, all results, etc. The complete official photo album is available on Flickr (credit: Andreas Kontokanis), while the final tournament report by the World Chess Federation (FIDE) may be found here.
Mr Arkadij Dvorkovich, President of the World Chess Federation (FIDE), was the keynote speaker at the opening ceremony and played the ceremonial first move of the event. This his first visit to Malta also marked Mr Dvorkovich’s hundredth country he travelled to. Malta is also special for the President as the 1980 Chess Olympiad in Valletta was the first time his father was given permission to travel out of the USSR, as part of the winning Soviet contingent.
On the eve of the event, officials from the Malta Chess Federation held meetings with Mr Dvorkovich, focussing on the celebrations of the Federation’s upcoming centenary in 2023 (making it one of very few national federations older than the world chess federation itself), the Chess in Schools programme, and future world events in Malta. During his brief visit, MCF officials also gave the President a private tour of Valletta.
The event also welcomed Mr Theodoros Tsorbatzoglou, Secretary General of the European Chess Union (ECU), who attended most of the event and played the ceremonial first move of round 5; Mr Aleksandr Martynov, Legal Director on the FIDE Management Board, who also played in the U1700 championship and spoke at the closing ceremony; and Mr Willy Iclicki, FIDE’s Chairman of the Historical Committee and Data Protection Officer, who also played in the U2000 championship and spoke at the closing ceremony.
