A Great Honor from FIDE for Izmir: Ozel Cakabey Schools Wins the 2025 Golden School Award
Ozel Cakabey Schools, an educational institution in Izmir, has been awarded the FIDE 2025 Golden School Award for its efforts to make chess an important part of classroom learning. This prestigious award is presented to institutions that view chess education not merely as a club activity, but as a holistic tool that supports students’ mental, social, and academic development. In its statement, FIDE emphasized that the school’s original program is supported by activities that keep children engaged and that chess-based games have been successfully integrated into the learning process.
In modern education, chess has long been associated with skills such as problem-solving, planning, developing concentration, and decision-making. This is precisely what makes the achievement of Ozel Cakabey Schools so valuable: the institution appears to have transformed chess into a natural part of students’ daily learning experience, rather than reducing it simply to memorizing openings or achieving tournament success. The approach highlighted by FIDE combines the tactical and strategic aspects of the game with educational outcomes, while also contributing to the development of core skills among students such as cooperation, patience, and analytical thinking.
The contribution of Coach Ozan Capan, who stands out as one of the architects of the program carried out at the school, is also especially significant in this award. High-quality chess education is not limited to teaching how the pieces move; producing age-appropriate content, maintaining student motivation, and correctly conveying the pedagogical value of the game are just as decisive as technical knowledge. The Turkish Chess Federation’s congratulations to both the school and the coach clearly show that this success was born from the combination of institutional vision and the work of a skilled instructor.
As chess has become more widespread in schools across Turkey in recent years, this kind of international recognition also serves as a strong reference point for new projects. The Golden School Award is not only a prestigious result achieved by one institution, but also a concrete indication of how effective chess can be as an educational tool. It is expected that this example from Izmir will inspire other educational institutions and help chess become a structured part of the lives of even more children. This encouraging development for Turkish chess has once again demonstrated how powerful the impact can be when education meets the 64 squares.