Besides the Chess Olympiad the International Youth Camp opened its doors on Saturday. 52 participants from 12 nations joined the camp. People from all over the world travelled to Dresden to meet other chessplayers and experience the unique olympic feeling. For the first time ever, a Youth Camp took place at the location of the chess Olympics. The idea is modelled after the successful Youth Camp during the “classical” Olympic Games, which is a huge success for decades. The „German Chess Youth “ prepared the Youth Camp together with the organisation team from Dresden and invited young people from 16-20 to join the Camp for a duration of seven days.
The cross-cultural element of the common sport is only the basis to allow deep relationships and understanding among different nations especially in the target group of the youths – independent of borders and differences.
So the vice president of the German Chess Federation, Hans-Jürgen Gieseke, declared during the opening of the International Youth Camp the aim to cultivate contacts and friendships across national borders and to increase the self-confidence and the understanding of the participants.
A diversified program creates apart from the possibility of cross-cultural communication also the chance to experience the host nation Germany. So a tour on the River Elbe, an interesting cultural program in Dresden and the day trip to the capital Berlin are only a few points in this week. The experience of the Chess Olympiad and the diverse activities in the group round the days at Dresden.
Already in the first days the joy of communication and the succeeded understanding between the participants from countries all over the world shows the success of the International Youth Camp. So there is the hope that this idea will be taken over and that the Youth Camp will grow up to a fixed program part of next Chess Olympiads like it is yet at the classical Olympiad.
