The Cyprus Chess Federation was founded on the fifth of February 1967. Despite not being officially founded until 1967, the Cyprus Chess Federation joined the International Chess Federation (FIDE) in 1961 as well as host the first official Cyprus Chess Championship which was won by Georgios Kleopas.
The Cyprus Chess Federation has taken part in every Chess Olympiad since 1962 apart from two (1976 & 1978). Two individual medals were won by members of the Cyprus Chess Team: Marios Schinis won the Gold Medal for 2nd Reserve Board at the 1984 Chess Olympiad and Costas Perdikis won the Bronze Medal for 2nd Reserve Board at the 1988 Chess Olympiad.
The Cyprus Chess Championship has also been taking part each year with only five years missed since 1961 (1964, 1972, 1975, 1978, and 1979). Agathoclis Constantinou holds the record for the most titles with a total of 9! The youngest player ever to win the Cyprus Chess Championship is Konstantinos Michaelides when he won in 2016 with the young age of 13 years! He broke the previous record held by GM Andreas Kelires by a few months.
For more information about the Cyprus Chess Federation check out the following links:
- Cyprus Chess Federation Facebook Group
- Cyprus Chess Federation Facebook Page
- Cyprus Chess Federation YouTube Channel 1
- Cyprus Chess Federation YouTube Channel 2
- Wikipedia (List of Cyprus Chess Champions)
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