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World Chess Championship for Disabled 2015 - Dresden
Dirk Jordan: we are proud to be known as Secret Chess Capital.
- Written by Kema Goryaeva
Having been involved with organising chess tournaments for a few years now Dr Dirk Jordan is a very well know person within the international chess world. We had a chance to talk chess with him during the 2nd World Chess Championship for the Disabled.
UV: We are back again at the 2nd World Chess Championship for the Disabled and I am now here with Dr Dirk Jordan who is the Tournament Director as well as the President of ZMDI Schachfestival Dresden e.V. In the Opening Ceremony the Mayor mentioned that Dresden is considered the secret Chess Capital of Germany. Can you explain this a little further?
DJ: We feel incredibly honoured to have received this title, we wouldn’t be awarding this title to ourselves but we are proud that be known like this. In the past we have been very successful in organising different chess events. The highlight was the Chess Olympiad in 2008. But we have also done numerous European Championships, namely in 2007; more than 10 European Teamchampionships for Seniors, FIDE tournaments and many more. It is great to attract a great number of high rated players. We have initiated the German Masters tournament and will continue to keep this going in the future. Thanks to all of this we are very well established not only in the abled bodies chess but also in chess for the disabled. We are grateful to be receiving the support of the city and the state of Saxony. As you remember the city was represented by the Mayor at the opening ceremony. This will enable us to keep on going with our engagement in chess.
UV: You’ve just mentioned that city and state are supporting you as much as they can. Is the FIDE doing the same?
DJ: It is an incredible pleasure to have that close relationship with the FIDE for the past few years. I can remember this going back to around 2002/2003 when we applied for the Olympiad. This World Chess Championship for the disabled is now based on the question that was asked in 2008 – why are there no Paralympic Games for Chess? Therefore we have developed this idea with the support of FIDE right from the beginning. Now here in Dresden we have Thomas Luther representing FIDE in his capacity as Chairman of Chess for the Disabled. Moreover we had Nigel Freeman here for the Opening Ceremony and Lakdhar Mazouz will be joining us for the Closing Ceremony. There is also a big financial support coming from them for the internation level. This enabled us to invite the Continental Champions to come to Dresden. As you might have heard already we will also be holding the 3rd edition in 2017 and we are very excited about this oportunity.
UV: It is great to hear that everybody is pulling in the same direction to be able to get a bigger impact.
DJ: It is an imense honour to be leading the field here in Germany and Philip Gardner mentioned today that in the future we will be seeing a few more players at future tournaments. Although we have already seen an incredible number of internationl players at this years tournament.
UV: This is excellent news. Good luck for the rest of the tournament and all future events and may Dresden remain present on the map of the World Chess Federation.
