Day One of Smart Moves Summit 2025: Strategic Leadership and Innovation in Global Chess Education

August 05, 2025 at 08:15 AM EDT

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK / ACCESS Newswire / August 5, 2025 / The opening day of the Smart Moves Summit 2025, sponsored by NASDAQ-listed Freedom Holding Corp., commenced with a powerful exploration of strategic leadership in global chess education. Moderated by Dana Reizniece, the session brought together distinguished speakers, including the President of the International School Chess Federation and Freedom Holding CEO Timur Turlov, Dr. Bill Poucher, Steinar Sæthre, Omoboye Odu, and others to examine how long-term planning, cross-sector collaboration, and visionary leadership can shape the future of chess education worldwide.

Timur Turlov, who is also the president of Kazakhstan Chess Federation is a huge chess enthusiast and a dedicated supporter of the global chess community. Under his leadership, Freedom Holding has brought high-level events like the Chess and Finance Conference Wall Street Gambit, at last year's FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championship in NYC.

Turlov's mission in holding such events is to make chess accessible for as many children as possible.

In his speech on the Opening Day, Turlov emphasized the crucial role of a chess game in children's development.

"We've already started talking about how even the educational system needs to adapt to modern challenges. One of the biggest is our ability to keep attention and concentration. Global corporations compete for customer attention - and that affects our kids and society. I really believe that chess could be a great solution to help overcome this," said Timur Turlov.

A subsequent session focused on Chess in Early and Primary Education, featuring thought leaders such as Jerry Nash, Mauricio Arias Santana, Rita Atkins, and Fernando Moreno. The discussion highlighted how early exposure to chess fosters critical executive functioning, emotional regulation, mathematical skills, and social learning - particularly in inclusive and multilingual classroom environments.

In a panel on Educational Equity through Chess, speakers including Leontxo García, Jennifer Shahade, and Priyadharshan Kannappan addressed how chess can serve as a powerful tool for promoting equity across gender, socio-economic status, and geography. A dynamic dialogue on the role of Educational Technology in Chess Learning featured Jeremy Kane, Dr. Kenneth Regan, Ella Papanek, and others.

Leontxo García also moderated a session on building effective public-private partnerships, where Arpine Lpetyan, Jacob-Askham Christensen, and Steinar Sæthre discussed how well-designed learning methodologies aligned with national education goals can support impactful collaborations between chess organizations and government institutions.

The day concluded with two expert-led masterclasses. John Foley, National Master and Director of Training Content, and Rita Atkins, Secretary of the FIDE Chess in Education Commission, delivered practical demonstrations on how to design short chess-based tasks for early math instruction. They also presented scalable, classroom-tested frameworks for empowering educators, both beginners and experienced, to integrate chess and other strategic games into cognitive development, learner engagement, and interdisciplinary education.

About the summit: Leaders, educators, and innovators from around the world gathered in Washington D.C. to explore how strategic leadership, early childhood integration, educational equity, and technology are reshaping the global chess education landscape.

"Smart Moves is our chance to learn from each other - to bring together educators, researchers, and innovators for an open dialogue: How can we make education more relevant? How do we combine tradition with innovation? What does it take to scale what works? We hope this summit alongside the championship becomes a tradition - where theory and real-world practice go hand in hand," said Timur Turlov, the President of the International School Chess Federation

With more sessions to follow, tomorrow promises another full day of thought-provoking discussions, groundbreaking ideas, and creative approaches at the intersection of chess, learning, and global development!