Raia Rooks Chess Academy

Uganda hosts the dreams of Africa’s young chess champions. 🇺🇬
Where talent meets discipline, the African Youth Chess Championship in full motion.
More than a game, a celebration of youth, unity, and African excellence. ♟️🌍

Coach/Arbiter Paul Boyo, thank you for always representing with excellence and class!

For four consecutive years as Chief Arbiter of the Olojo Festival World Chess Tournament (OFWCT), your dedication, professionalism, and passion for chess development have remained outstanding.
Seeing you at the prestigious 50 Years African Chess Unity: African Chess Confederation proudly wearing the Raia Rooks Chess Club cap is deeply appreciated. That gesture speaks volumes about loyalty, identity, and representation.
You are looking sharp, distinguished, and fully in command as always! Wishing you successful arbitration throughout the championship and many greater heights ahead.

Thank you for flying the RRCC flag proudly!

At the prestigious Olojo Festival World Chess Tournament (7th Edition), excellence was not just witnessed, it was embodied.
The Vice President of the Nigeria Chess Federation, proudly repping Raia Rooks Chess Club/Academy, bringing class, focus, and leadership right to the board. ♟️🥰👑🏁

Congratulations to the 2nd position winner of the National Friends Of Chess Championships (NFOC), 2026, The Veteran Category!

Class meets the board.
Nigeria’s formidable, International Player Obioma Onuoha, aka, "GM Double OO," repping Raia Rooks Apparel in style.
This is more than fashion, it’s legacy. 💙👊🏿👍🏿

🧠♟ The 6 Thinking Levels: How Children Think & Learn Through Chess

Every child can think — just in different ways. 💡

This visual beautifully illustrates the six levels of thinking, inspired by Bloom’s Taxonomy, and shows how chess naturally supports each stage of a child’s cognitive development:

🔹 Remembering – recalling rules, moves, and patterns
🔹 Understanding – explaining ideas and strategies in one’s own words
🔹 Applying – using learned concepts during real games
🔹 Analyzing – breaking positions into parts and finding patterns
🔹 Evaluating – making decisions and justifying the best choice
🔹 Creating – designing new ideas, plans, and solutions

♟️ Through chess, children don’t just memorize — they explain, apply, analyze, decide, and create.
It nurtures critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity, while respecting that every learner shines in their own way.

✨ Big idea:
• Bloom’s Taxonomy shows how deeply a child thinks
• Multiple intelligences remind us how a child is smart

A child may forget words…
❤️ but still be brilliant at creating ideas!



FIDE - International Chess Federation
Dana Reizniece

Strengthening chess integrity: Joint meeting of FIDE Commissions

On 24–25 January 2026, at VU University in Amsterdam, the Chairmen and Secretary of the FIDE Arbiters’, Rules, and Fair-Play Commissions held a joint meeting dedicated to the future of chess integrity.

FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich attended the opening of the meeting, which was marked by a strong spirit of unity, professionalism, and mutual respect. Addressing the participants, he emphasised the importance of coordinated efforts across all integrity-related functions in chess, stating:

“The integrity of chess depends on close cooperation between arbiters, rules experts, and fair-play specialists. Only by working together, with clearly defined responsibilities and high professional standards, can we ensure trust, fairness, and consistency at all levels of competition.”

A clear and shared vision emerged from the discussions: arbiters and fair-play staff should not be viewed as separate entities, but as complementary roles that must operate in close coordination. This includes the development of integrated education and training pathways, clearer allocation of responsibilities within the playing venue, and enhanced cooperation at all organisational levels.

The working group reaffirmed the central role of the Chief Arbiter, highlighted the importance of modern and harmonised education systems, and stressed the necessity of maintaining the highest fair-play standards at FIDE World Events.

A key conclusion of the meeting was the recognition that arbiters, rules experts, and fair-play specialists form a single professional community, working together to make chess fairer, stronger, and safer for players, organisers, and the global chess community.

The working group formulated several proposals – including potential amendments to existing regulations – which will be circulated for consideration within the respective commissions. Joint work will continue in the coming months with the objective of developing a comprehensive set of proposals for submission to the FIDE Council.