The World University Chess Championship is biennial event open for university students only, organized under auspices of FISU since 1990.
| FISU |
| The International University Sports Federation (FISU), with headquarters in Brussels, coordinates the activities of over 100 national university sport federations and organizes the Winter and the Summer Universiades in odd years and the World University Championships in number of disciplines in even years. It was officially formed in 1949, but its history goes back to 1923 when the "World Student Games" took place in Paris. The Universiades continue to attract a lot of athletes: up to 6000 recent years. FISU is composed of a General Assembly, which represents the 134 member countries. This body elects the Executive Committee for a period of four years. The president of FISU is currently George E. Killian. Next Universiades are to be held in 2007 in Bangkok (Summer) and Turin (Winter). |
|
It has no relation neither to the Student Olympiads nor to the Panamerican university tournaments. As chess is not part of Universiades (Student Olympic Games) it was decided that the separate event will be launched. The FISU World University Championship never ever gained popularity comparable to that of the Student Olympiads, but every time it attracts several dozen players from all over the world, including some titled players. The Championship is actually individual event (nine round Swiss) played separately for men and women. Sum of points of top players representing each country adds to team's total score. Chess nations of secondary importance, like Iran or Mongolia, among the medal winners are a clear evidence that not many top nations send their men to compete in the championship. There are some respected names at the winner list though, like Filippov, Smirnov and Zhang Zhong for men and Khurtsidze, Lomineishvili or Li Ruofan for women.
See here for official individual medal winners list.