ChessKid at the 2022 Olympiad: Legendary Grandmasters, Special Events, and Lots of Fun!

Hi ChessKids! The 44th Chess Olympiad is officially over, and we have so many exciting things to share with you. Chess legend GM Viswanathan Anand was there for several special events, some of the world's most talented players stopped by the ChessKid booth, and there was lots of livestreaming action!

Here’s our official Olympiad recap, focusing on some of the biggest highlights.

A GM Masterclass with Vishy Anand

Vishy held a special masterclass for lucky ChessKids. This was an amazing opportunity for the attendees to learn directly from one of the most legendary chess players ever.

A promo image for the masterclass with GM Viswanathan Anand.

Around 50 ChessKids were treated to this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn from a five-time world chess champion, who shared his wealth of experience and words of wisdom with all the kids attending.

Vishy's son, Akhil, also told FunMasterMike about his favorite player...

... and it's not who you think it is!

Special Event: Stump the GM!

An image of the Stump the GM event at the 2022 Chess Olympiad, showing the two grandmasters posing for the camera.
But that’s not all—Vishy also treated ChessKids to a unique event: Stump the GM! This event was organized in partnership with World Wildlife Fund (WWF) India, and involved GM Viswanathan Anand and GM Prithu Gupta challenging each other with chess studies and puzzles to solve.

ChessKids in attendance won T-shirts, pins, and other merchandise for getting the right answers to some tricky questions.

An image of the Stump the GM event at the 2022 Chess Olympiad, showing the two grandmasters posing for the camera.

In addition, kids had the chance to participate in a photograph and autograph session with the grandmasters! WWF India also held featured activities such as a special Tiger Quiz, Tiger Anthem, and more, because July 29 was also the International Day of the Tiger.

By the way, now would be a good time to mention that Vishy’s (very cool) nickname is 'The Tiger of Madras', making it a very fitting collaboration!

Famous chess streamer and Olympiad player WFM Anna Cramling covered the entire event on her Twitch channel, so you can catch all the action at your leisure.

Fun at the ChessKid Booth

The ChessKid booth at the Olympiad was a big hit, with lots of players and ChessKids coming to say hello!

We had lots of fun with puzzle battles, over-the-board games with the ChessKid team, simultaneous matches with IM Rakesh Kulkarni, a trivia quiz, and more.

A picture of WGM Irene Kharisma Sukandar and WIM Jesse February at the ChessKid booth.

ChessKids friends WIM Jesse February and WGM Irene Sukandar came to the ChessKid booth to play some games and solve puzzles; WGM Sukandar crossed 2700 in puzzle rating at our booth!

A picture of Jesse February playing Dina Belenkaya at the ChessKid booth.

Jesse also played against WGM Dina Belenkaya, who livestreamed from the booth and played against some lucky ChessKids!

WFM Anna Cramling playing puzzles at the ChessKid booth.

WFM Anna Cramling played some puzzles at the ChessKid booth, after doing lots of streaming (and playing in the Olympiad, of course).

A picture of Randa Sedar from Palestine, the youngest player at the 44th Olympiad.

Meet the youngest player at the 2022 Olympiad: Palestine's Randa Sedar. She's eight years old, and picked up a Gold ChessKid membership as well as some cool ChessKid merch.

WGM Anastasiya Karlovych also dropped by, and gave some free chess lessons at the booth. This was another amazing opportunity for ChessKids to learn from one of the world's top players. Check out the video here!

IM Rakesh Kulkarni playing several simultaneous matches against kids.

ChessKid team member IM Rakesh Kulkarni played simultaneous matches against some aspiring young players, and had a great time. All players received a ChessKid sticker or (temporary) tattoo, whether they played Rakesh or one of the many fun ChessKid bots!

IM Rakesh Kulkarni showing a ChessKid sticker a young Olympiad attendee just won.

We had a great time meeting so many ChessKids at the Olympiad, and we hope that you had a great time reading about it. Thank you to everyone who stopped by to say hi! We're looking forward to meeting even more of you at our next events!