ALMATY – The inaugural FIDE World University Team Chess Championship opened in Almaty on Aug. 4 with teams from Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, Beijing University and 12 other leading universities. While the event crowns the world’s strongest university chess team, it also reflects Kazakhstan’s broader effort to position itself as an international center for intellectual competition. Chess becomes part of education policyThe championship illustrates how Kazakhstan’s chess strategy has evolved beyond organizing tournaments. The university championship further reinforces that trajectory by placing Kazakhstan at the center of FIDE’s Year of Chess in Education 2026. Meanwhile, the university championship began with strong performances from Saint Louis University, the University of Texas at Dallas, Ural State Mining University and Kazakhstan’s own Al-Farabi Kazakh National University.