The Official NATO-Chess-Webpage

Chess is a popular sport discipline in the military environment of the NATO member states. This is evidenced primarily by the competitions organized at the allied level: the 12th NATO Tournaments (1978-1988 and 1993) and the 31st NATO Championships (1989-2021).
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Original article in Szachista (Polish)

15 August 2022:
By the Chairman

Lt. Col. Sławomir Kędzierski: the most important thing is the team's success

Three gold medals, 11 silver and four bronze were won by the Polish Army representation in 20 competitions in the championship chess competitions at the NATO level. The last championship in Estonia and the results obtained by our chess players in previous competitions are summarized by Lt. Col. Sławomir Kędzierski, chairman of the International Military Chess Committee.

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Original article in Armed Poland (Polish)

3 July 2022:
By the Webmaster

Last week, the 32th NATO Chess Championship has been played. Despite 30 degrees Celcius (86F) the whole week which was very unusual in Estonia this time, the chess event and the cultural events were wonderful organized!

The winner of the 1st Joint EU and NATO online blitz tournament is Cpt. Dariusz SYCZ. The participation of almost 30 players on Lichess, 29 Dec 2021, gives hope to continue the project. The main goal to get started has been successfully achieved. :-) Moreover, the competition offered a good chance to Albanian and Czech soldiers to show up. All veterans are welcome, too.

The nearby trophy belongs to GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda who won the World Cup 2021 and thus qualified for the 2022 Candidates tournament.

Presentation Friends of Chess medal to Director MSiT

Presentation of the Friends of Chess medal to the Director of MSiT Mr Sławomir Majcher

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1 January 2022:
By the Webmaster

Happy new year! The world situation is still unclear. We hope that the NCC tournament in Estonia can be organized this year. In the mean time, the web site is being updated with old pictures that were a) stored in Google+ in the past or b) couldn't be stored in Google+ due to space problems. The news section at the countries pages are being updated from collections over the web sites in the world. There is much written about the NCC tournaments and it is a pity that some material is being lost due to space problems at the servers. Recovered news material will be summarized at the countries pages.
In the mean time, an online blitz tournament was played at 29 Dec 2021. The games can be viewed and downloaded from

18 October 2021:
The NATO Chess 2021 Tournament has ended.
Link to the tournament site for results
Link to URLs for the onofficial pictures

11 October 2021:
The NATO Chess 2021 Tournament has begun.
Link to the tournament site
Link to live games

02 October 2021:
Announcement NATO Chess 2021 Tournament
Link to the tournament site
Link to Belgian Military Chess

01 October 2021:
A short history of NATO Chess (1989-2020)
Une brève histoire du jeu d´échecs à l´OTAN (1989-2020)

11 July 2021:
An education article about a game between a lower and higher rated player in the 1st Round of NATO Chess 2019
Some exercises of the 1st Round of NATO Chess 2019

1 April 2021:
Open File (Magazine UK Armed Forces Chess Association) - Edition Spring 2021

6 December 2020:
Remembering Ben De Cat - and his irregular openings

9 Oct 2020:
Open File (Magazine UK Armed Forces Chess Association) - Edition Autumn 2020

28 June 2020:
Due to the uncertainty of the world situation, the 31th NATO Chess Championship has been postphoned to 2021. Details will be followed later.

30 April 2020:
Armed Services invites you to read their articles. They can be found at a tab called 'download'. You need to click on this and then the password all in uppercase is OFREADERS and this will take you to the magazines including the latest one which is Spring 2020. You are most welcome to download what you wish, but all we ask is that you keep the password to yourself.

26 April 2020:
With sadness we have to inform you that our Belgian NCC player Ben de Cat unexpectedly passed away on 21st April 2020. Ben will be forever remembered by the NCC community with his love for life and for his unconventional chess playing style. More details about Bens funeral

10 March 2020:
US Chess Ethics Committee member David Hater elected to the FIDE Ethics Commission

01 December 2019:
The 2019th Nato Chess Website is updated! Please checkout for some nice photos. Link to the tournament site

08 November 2019:
Wolfgang Berger - the "face" of the catholic working group for soldiers (KAS) - is no longer with us. For details click here

24 September 2019:
The 30th NATO Championship has been finished last Friday. Final Team Ranking: 1) Germany 2) Poland 3) Greece. Thanks to all the players, home front, organizers, sponsors and supporters for making this event possible!
Pictures are included at the news pages of the Championship page.
The web master is currently checking the PGN files.

16 to 20 September 2019:

Link to the tournament site

The Official NATO Chess Webpage