Freedom Holding Corp., the Nasdaq-listed financial and technology group, is expanding its involvement in chess beyond sponsorship following its acquisition of ChessBase.
African Continental Stage of the 2026 World Schools Team Chess Championship
When school chess teams converge near Cape Town this July, the tournament will mark more than a sporting first. It will highlight the expanding global reach of school chess and the growing role of corporate partners in supporting its development.
For the first time under the championship’s new format, Africa will host a continental stage of the World Schools Team Championship, the expanding competition that brings school teams together for a place in its Grand Final. The African stage will be held from July 6 to 11, 2026, on Stellenbosch University’s campus in the Cape Town area, with teams expected from across the continent. The winning team will advance directly to the Grand Final scheduled for December 2026.
Following an online qualifier in May 2026, Welgemoed Primary School (Cape Town), Virginia Preparatory (Durban North) and Holy Cross Primary School (George) qualified to represent South Africa at African Schools Team Championships!!
The championship enters its third edition under a four-region format spanning Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe. The Asian qualifier, held April 7 to 10 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, was won by Wisdom School of Tashkent, ahead of Moscow’s Kurchatov School and Chennai’s Velammal MHS. The Americas stage follows in August in San José, Costa Rica. Exact dates for the European stage and the Grand Final have yet to be announced.
Organized by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and the International School Chess Federation (ISCF), with Freedom Holding Corp. serving as general partner, the championship forms part of FIDE’s “Year of Chess in Education”. FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich described Africa and the Americas as emerging chess hubs with growing infrastructure and school programs. He said FIDE would continue supporting their development as part of its longer-term strategy to expand chess beyond its traditional centers.
From a 2023 conversation to an institution
The WSTC grew out of discussions in 2023 between Dvorkovich and Timur Turlov, president of the Kazakhstan Chess Federation and chief executive of Freedom Holding Corp., about expanding chess participation at the school level. FIDE and the Kazakhstan Chess Federation jointly launched the event in Aktau in August 2023, bringing together more than 400 students from 53 countries. The second edition, held at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia, brought together hundreds of students and more than 50 teams from six continents.
The initiative was later given a more formal institutional structure. The ISCF, created in September 2024 on a proposal from Turlov and approved by the FIDE General Assembly, now helps administer the WSTC circuit, supports the integration of chess into education systems and is building an international network of school-chess organizations. Turlov serves as its president. He has cast the African and American expansions as a means of deepening youth engagement and building what he calls sustainable chess ecosystems in both regions, ahead of the Cape Town and San José events.
Kazakhstan as the template
Kazakhstan offers the working model for that ambition. Chess benefits from substantial state and institutional support in Kazakhstan, where Turlov also leads the national federation. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has publicly tied the game to education, intellectual culture and personal development. A joint push involving FIDE, the education ministry, the federation and several foundations is embedding chess in the school curriculum, particularly at primary level; Kazakhstan’s Chess in Education program now covers more than 1,500 schools and about 60,000 students. The program has also expanded access to international competition, educational networks and higher-level training for talented young players.
Freedom Holding Expands Beyond Sponsorship
A major corporate supporter of these initiatives is Freedom Holding Corp., the international financial and technology group led by Turlov. The company says it invests more than $15 million a year in chess, partnering with FIDE across events that include the WSTC and the World Rapid and Blitz Championships. The 2026 acquisition of ChessBase marked an expansion beyond conventional sponsorship into ownership of a specialized chess software, data and content platform.
The acquisition suggests that Freedom sees a potential strategic role for chess-related digital products within its broader ecosystem. The company has said it plans to modernize ChessBase with artificial intelligence and integrate the platform into its digital ecosystem through its SuperApp. It has not disclosed detailed revenue, engagement or user-growth targets for that integration.
For the school teams gathering near Cape Town, the immediate opportunity is a place in a new continental competition and a direct route to the Grand Final. For Freedom Holding, the wider significance lies in an expanding role that now includes both sponsorship and ownership of a specialized digital chess platform.
The WSTC and ChessBase can be viewed as complementary elements of that involvement, but the company has not disclosed a unified commercial strategy connecting the school championship with the platform. Whether ChessBase becomes a meaningful source of engagement or revenue within Freedom’s ecosystem will depend on product development, execution and the response of its existing user community.
