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The Convention promotes collective action against corruption and aims to raise awareness and empower communities with a focus on women and youth. This is stated in a UN video message by Mrs Ghada Waly, the Executive Director of UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime).
Corruption is highly damaging to society, to the economy, to our democracies and to individuals. The International Anti-Corruption Day is marked globally, seeking to highlight the crucial link between anti-corruption and peace, security and development. The Serbian Agency for Prevention of Corruption, with its headquarters in the capital, Belgrade, joined the efforts with a number of activities.
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The Agency’s building in central Belgrade | Photo: APC
In their endeavours to mobilize individuals, organizations and the government to take a stand against corruption, they came up with the idea of enlisting chess in the fight against corruption.
With their slogan “For Serbia without corruption” and having in mind Voltaire’s quote, “Of all games, chess deserves the greatest honour of the human mind”, the Agency joined forces with the Belgrade Chess Association and mounted a very successful tournament which saw ten teams of boys and girls from the Serbian Chess Youth League participating. The tournament took place on December 16-17 in a chess playing hall on the premises of Borba (Fight), one of the oldest Serbian dailies. The playing hall is named “Hall of Iva and Gliga”, in honour of the two Serbian chess legends, Ivkov and Gligoric.
The playing hall: ‘Gliga and Iva’ | Photo: Borba
The tournament was given a fitting title: Checkmate to Corruption. It aimed to link this intellectual game with the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption’s mission to develop and encourage quality, humane and healthy society, which, through fair relations, such as in chess, will have clear rules, strong thinkers and achieve honourable victories.
The tournament was officially opened by the director of the Agency, Dejan Damnjanović, and the President of the Belgrade Chess Association, Andrija Jorgić, who also made the ceremonial first move.
Mr Damnjanović (on the left) and Mr Jorgić perform the first move | Photo: Borba
The Director of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption and the President of the Belgrade Chess Association have a common aim: to raise awareness in the young generations of the destructive power of corruption and educate them in preventing this malaise suffered by many societies to a certain degree.
Guided by the motto “prevention is better than cure”, Mr Damnjanović considers of extreme importance the education of young generations, who are the future bearers of society. Recognizing them as key partners, the Agency pays particular attention to the involvement of young people in strengthening awareness and encouraging their initiatives in preventing corruption and building ethics and integrity. In his opening speech he said:
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I want to checkmate corruption today and stress that it is most important for us to work with young people. We need to have a close relationship with the youth of our country, to get them acquainted with corruption, to make them understand what this scourge means for them and for all of us, to hear what they think and to work together, to make a step further in our common fight against corruption.
The President of the Belgrade Chess Association, Mr Andrija Jorgić, addressing the audience | Photo: Borba
Mr Andrija Jorgić, the President of the Belgrade Chess Association, expressed similar concerns and aims:
The awareness about corruption should start from a young age, from cadets, from children. We, from the chess association and the chess world, are making our contribution to this week of the fight against corruption in our own way: through chess we will try to checkmate corruption.
Mr Jorgić used this opportunity to also indicate that the Belgrade Chess Association is committed to helping and popularizing chess in schools and among women.
Cups and presents for the winners | Photo: Borba
The event was attended by the representative of the general sponsor, the Klett Publishing House, Ilija Ćosović, and the famous Serbian woman chess player, IM Alisa Marić.
From left to right: Alisa Marić, Jorgić, Damnjanović and Ćosović in front of the photo of Gliga and Iva | Photo: Borba
In the boys’ section the winning teams were: Radnicki (1st), Partizan (2nd) and Tadic (3rd). In the girls’ section the winning teams were: Vitez (1st) and Partizan Junior (2nd).
The winners with Mr Jorgić and Jelena Ivanović (far left), the Public Relations representative of the Agency for Prevention of Corruption’s and driving force in the organization of the tournament | Photo: Borba
The boys’ winning team, Radnicki | Photo: Borba
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The girls’ winning team, Vitez | Photo: Borba
This was the first cooperation of this kind between the Serbian Agency for Prevention of Corruption and the Belgrade Chess Association, but its success and effective message have set up a pathway towards making it a greater annual event which would strengthen the awareness and help deliver checkmate to corruption.
