In Panama, where Carrillo was heading the chess federation for eight years, he persuaded the government to adopt legislation introducing chess as an extracurricular project in schools. To achieve this, his strategy was based on two principles: bringing in experts in the field to strengthen the argument and going not just to elected officials but also administrators and those responsible for policy implementation who stay in their roles regardless of whether there is a change in government.

And this is where Mauricio Arias Santana has become essential. Arias, an International Master from Costa Rica, is the president of the Education Commission for FIDE America who has been spearheading the practical implementations of strategies and projects focused on using chess as an educational tool.

Critics may argue that by focusing on education, not enough attention is being paid to promoting chess competitions, but Arias rejects this.

“Chess is still extremely important to us as a competition. But by making chess more inclusive and more open to everyone, more people will be interested, and more will go into competitive chess.” He argued that the broader approach makes chess more accessible to children and the youth, “where most won’t become professional chess players”.

“Players prepare for competitions, but most kids are not interested in that. But when you promote chess in the way we are now – little by little, through various programmes touching different aspects of life and life skills – a wider pool of people can relate to that, and the game is likely to grow faster”, Arias said.

Planting the seeds

To achieve their goals for chess, Carrillo and Arias are implementing a strategy which is focused more on administrators and officials tasked with implementing policies, who remain in government regardless who is in power.

“We deliberately focused on the branch of the administration that executes policy. Not the politicians who come and go, but on the administrators who drive the changes.”

The two-day conference in San Jose was attended by advisors to the Ministry of Education from all 27 regions of the country. Almost none of them play chess or have any experience with the game.

“This is exactly what we wanted,” notes Arias – “professionals in the field of education who will approach chess not as fans or players, but as experts who can assess and implement the best tools for empowering the future generations”.

Even before the conference in San Jose, educational events in Argentina and Cuba helped spread the word in the Americas about the new approach. As Carrillo notes, the response has been strikingly positive. “Every country we reached,” he said, mentioning places such as St Kitts and Nevis, Barbados, Colombia, Peru, Argentina and Chile, “was very keen on this.”

The key to success – Carillo and Arias argue – is to help national chess federations reach state officials, by providing them with experts and policy documents that help strengthen the argument for greater government support for chess.

FIDE has been supportive of the project. In August 2025, FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich led a delegation on a tour of Latin America. Working closely with national federations and speaking with state officials, FIDE helped open doors for more state support for chess in the continent. More recently, Deputy Chair of the FIDE Management board, Dana Reizniece, has been travelling the Caribbean, working closely with federations on drafting policies, preparing educational programmes for schools and meeting state officials.

The next big step

The organisers of the Summit on Chess and Education plan to turn the event into an annual gathering which will take place in different countries across Central and Latin America.

One country is already moving fast: Guatemala surprised everyone with an announcement that as early as this autumn they are launching a national school chess programme and have already put aside $1.5 million for the effort. Panama is also planning to host a conference on chess and education, and many Caribbean countries have also supported the initiative.

Asked what he hoped to see from the programme in 5-10 years, the president of the Confederation of Chess for the Americas had a simple answer: “better people in all our societies, working together.” While that may sound larger than chess, it is exactly the point of the new Latin American approach taking place.

How Costa Rican government officials see chess

Donald Rojas Fernandez, Minister of Sport

Rojas sees chess as a tool to “build a grassroots foundation,” where children will get a chance to learn through play and develop cognitive skills without even realising. “In the future, this will give us not just better athletes, but better people,” he told FIDE in an interview.