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In mid-August, Costa Rica will host a continental stage of the World Schools Team Championship (WSTC) in chess for the first time. From August 11 to 16, teams from nearly thirty countries across North, Central, and South America, as well as Caribbean nations, will gather in San José. The tournament marks the third stage of the 2026 world cycle, following competitions in Asia and Africa. The winners will earn the right to compete in the December grand final, where the strongest school teams from every continent will meet.
From Chile to Canada: Who Is Coming to the Tournament
School teams from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, and other countries in the region will take part in the competition. For Costa Rica, the tournament will be the largest international school chess event in its history and the first WSTC continental stage to be held in Central America.
The championship is organized by the International School Chess Federation (ISCF) under the auspices of the International Chess Federation (FIDE). ISCF fosters cooperation among educational institutions, chess federations, and government bodies. In addition to the competitive program, organizers have prepared an educational track: masterclasses for participants and conferences for teachers.
The president of ISCF is Timur Turlov, founder and majority shareholder of Freedom Holding Corp. The company he created is among the largest fintechs in Central Asia: Freedom Holding shares trade on Nasdaq, and the company’s market capitalization exceeded $9 billion as of early August.
Winners of the American Tournament Will Compete for the Title of Strongest School Team in the World
The American tournament continues the series of continental championships. The first stage took place in April in Almaty, where representatives of 19 countries competed for the title of Asia’s strongest school team. Wisdom School from Tashkent took first place. Second place went to Kurchatov School (Russia), and third to India’s Velammal MHS from Chennai.
In July, South Africa took up the baton. The continental stage in Stellenbosch brought together school teams from nearly the entire African continent for the first time, with schoolchildren from 22 countries taking part. Sr. Miriam Duggan Primary School from Uganda won the tournament, going through the entire competition without a single loss. Second place went to Kenya’s Moi Nyeri Complex Primary School, and third to South Africa’s Welgemoed Primary School.
After the Costa Rica tournament concludes, the cycle will continue with a European stage in the fall. The winners of all four continental tournaments will then meet in December at the grand final of the World Schools Team Championship 2026, where the world’s strongest school team will be determined.
What Is Known About Timur Turlov, Organizer of the World Schools Championship
Timur Turlov has spent several years developing chess in Kazakhstan while also popularizing the game worldwide. Timur Turlov recently announced his candidacy for the presidency of FIDE. In this role, Turlov plans to expand the sport’s digitalization. In his view, modern technology can transform the chess industry the way it has transformed the financial sector in recent years. While digitalization was once limited to online game broadcasts and electronic databases, today it encompasses education, analytics, and personalized educational services.
In Kazakhstan, Timur Turlov has led the national chess federation for three years. During this time, the country has hosted a number of major international tournaments, and Kazakhstani chess players have won 448 medals in competitions.
At the same time, Turlov is working to incorporate chess into school curricula. The “Chess in Education” project now includes more than 1,500 schools in Kazakhstan and over 60,000 students. The country’s chess federation plans to launch a unified platform, KazChess ID, that will bring together athletes, coaches, tournament organizers, and educational institutions.
In April 2026, one of the holding’s subsidiaries acquired the German company ChessBase, one of the world’s leading providers of chess software, analytical databases, and educational platforms. Freedom plans to invest approximately €5 million in the service’s further development. The holding company expects ChessBase to become not only a professional tool for grandmasters but also a modern educational platform for millions of beginning players. In the future, the service will be integrated with Freedom’s digital ecosystem, Freedom SuperApp.
