Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to entertain the audience, or for competition. Cheerleading routines typically range anywhere from one to three minutes, and contain components of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers, and stunting. Cheerleading originated in the United States, where it has become a tradition. It is less prevalent in the rest of the world, except via its association with American sports or organized cheerleading contests.
Athletics is a group of sporting events that involves competitive running, jumping and throwing. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross-country running, and racewalking.
The United States Chess Federation is the governing body for chess competition in the United States and represents the U.S. in The World Chess Federation (FIDE). USCF administers the official national rating system, awards national titles, sanctions over twenty national championships annually, and publishes two magazines: Chess Life and Chess Life Kids. The USCF was founded and incorporated in Illinois in 1939, from the merger of two older chess organizations. It is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Its membership as of 2020 as COVID hit was 97,000; as of 2024 the membership was 112,000.
The Commonwealth Chess Championship is a gathering of chess players from Commonwealth countries. The event offers direct titles: IM titles to the winners, and FM titles to the Silver and Bronze medalists.
The World Amateur Chess Championship is a tournament organised by FIDE and Amateur Chess Organisation (ACO).
The Maltese Chess Championship is the yearly chess championship organised by the Malta Chess Federation in Malta which determines the national champion. Initially it consisted of an Open Championship.
This article details the results of the China national chess team.
Bingham High School is a public high school located in South Jordan, Utah, United States. It is one of eight high schools in the Jordan School District. Teacher/pupil ratios are budgeted at 1 to 27.3, with actual class sizes varying. The school's name and mascot are derived from its proximity to the Bingham Copper Mine.
Alexandra Sergeevna Obolentseva is a Russian chess player. She was awarded the title Woman Grandmaster by FIDE in 2018. Obolentseva has won the World Youth Chess Championships, the World Schools Chess Championships and the European Schools Chess Championships in her age girls category.
FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and norms. Once awarded, titles are held for life except in cases of fraud or cheating. Open titles may be earned by all players, while women's titles are restricted to female players. Many strong female players hold both open and women's titles. FIDE also awards titles for arbiters, organizers and trainers. Titles for correspondence chess, chess problem composition and chess problem solving are no longer administered by FIDE.
Women's football in India is growing in popularity under All India Football Federation, despite the earlier long-term governing body's inability to provide sufficient funds for the game.
The International Federation of Muaythai Associations, or IFMA, called the International Federation of Muaythai Amateur until 27 July 2019, is a sport governing body of amateur and professional Muay Thai and Muay boran consisting of 140 member countries worldwide with 5 continental federations after unification of International Federation of Muaythai Amateur and World Muaythai Council. IFMA is officially recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Global Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF), the Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations (ARISF), the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) International World Games Association (IWGA), and Trim and Fitness International Sport for All Association (TAFISA). Muaythai has been included in many official sport programs such as the World Games, World Combat Games, Arafura Games, TAFISA Games, SEA Games, Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, Asian Beach Games, Demonstration Sport in the Asian Games.
Olga Alexandrovna Girya is a Russian chess player. She holds the title of Grandmaster (GM), which FIDE awarded her in 2021. She was a member of the gold medal-winning Russian team in the 2014 Women's Chess Olympiad and in the 2017 Women's World Team Chess Championship. Girya competed in the Women's World Chess Championship in 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2018. She won the Russian Women's Chess Championship in 2019.
Amir Faiz Amirul is a Malaysian chess player. He is the youngest Candidate Master of Fédération Internationale des Échecs or World Chess Federation (FIDE) in Malaysia's history. He earned the title of Candidate Master at age 7 years and 5 months. Despite finishing level on points with the winner, he emerged as a Runner-Up on tie-break in the 10th Asian Schools Chess Championship in 2014 which was held in Washington High School in Taichung, Taiwan.
The Malaysian Chess Championship is organized by the Malaysian Chess Federation. Known as the National Closed Chess Championship prior to 2016, the first edition was held in 1974. A separate Malaysian Women's Chess Championship has also been held annually since 1990. FIDE Master Christi Hon has won the national title a record five times, while Woman International Master Siti Zulaikha Foudzi has won the women's title a record eight times. It has occurred twice that a pair of siblings have won the national and the women's titles in the same year: Kamal Ariffin Wahiddudin and Nurul Huda Wahiduddin in 1991, and Zarul Shazwan Zullkafli and Nur Shazwani Zullkafli in 2007.
Alexandra Valeria Botez is an American and Canadian chess player, poker player, online streamer and YouTuber. In chess, she holds the FIDE title of Woman FIDE Master (WFM) and has a peak FIDE rating of 2092. She is a five-time Canadian girls' national champion and one-time U.S. girls' national champion. Botez has represented Canada at three Women's Chess Olympiads in 2012, 2014, and 2016. Alexandra and her younger sister Andrea Botez host the BotezLive Twitch and YouTube channels, which each have over 1 million followers and are one of the largest chess channels on each platform.
Shohreh Bayat is an Iranian chess arbiter based in England. She was chief arbiter of the Women's World Chess Championship 2020. Bayat is an International Arbiter for FIDE. She was awarded an International Women of Courage Award in 2021.
Women represent a small minority of chess players at all ages and levels. Female chess players today generally compete in a mix of open tournaments and women's tournaments, the latter of which are most prominent at or near the top level of women's chess and at youth levels. Modern top-level women's tournaments help provide a means for some participants to be full-time professional chess players. The majority of these tournaments are organized by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and revolve around the World Championship cycle, which culminates in a match to decide the Women's World Chess Champion. Beyond those events, among the most prominent women's tournaments are women's and girls' national and continental championships.
Jack Mizzi is a Maltese chess player. He was born on the 17 May 2006 in Malta. Mizzi is the 2024 Malta Chess Champion, the U-20 Junior Chess Champion, the National Rapid Chess Champion and the National Blitz Chess Champion in Malta. Mizzi is the youngest chess player to have won the Preliminaries in Malta at 13 years old. At 16 years old he became the youngest Maltese player to be awarded the Candidate Master title. He was called a chess "prodigy" by the online journal Malta Today in their short documentary about Mizzi. Mizzi participated in the World Youth Chess Championships in Romania 2022. In 2023 he set a new Malta chess record winning the Malta Blitz Championship with a perfect 9-0 score.
The Malta Chess Federation is the governing body for chess competition in Malta and represents Malta in FIDE, the World Chess Federation. MCF does not administer an official national rating system but relies on the International Elo rating system administered by FIDE.
