ANTAKYA MUNICIPALITY

The World Woman Chess Championship is going to be  held in Antakya between 02-25 December 2010 with the sponsorship of the Municipality of Antakya.

In the past two years The Municipality of Antakya has hosted the events below:

2009 Antakya Municipality  Chess Tournament, 17-22 July 2009

2010 Antakya Municipality Chess Tournament, 15-20 July 2010

The Biography of Lutfu Savas, the Major of Antakya Municipality.

Mayor Lutfu Savas who was born in 1965 in Antakya, had his childhood years in Havuzlar, one of Antakya’s districts.

He studied at the Istiklal Primary School and Kurtulus Secondary School and Industrial High School.

He graduated from the Anadolu University - Faculty of Medicine in 1990.

He worked in several regions of Turkey as a doctor.

He returned home with a great desire to share his experiences with his countrymen in Antakya.

He took place in the establishment of the Faculty of Medicine - Mustafa Kemal University.

He worked as Head-Doctor Assistant through bringing in the old State Hospital within the Mustafa Kemal University and the opening of the Researching University.

He became dozent in 2007. He worked as Vice-Chancellor at the Mustafa Kemal University between 2006-2008.

He leaded the way to start education at the Faculty of Medicine in 2007, during his Vice-Chancellor years.

With the opening new faculties and colleges, the number of students was increased to 22.000 from 13.000.

He was voted as the Mayor of Antakya Municipality at the local elections on 29th of March 2009 and left his mission in the university for a better Antakya.

Chess in Antakya

Chess in Hatay-Antakya is increasingly developing in recent years with the great support of Ali Rıza Tutuncuoglu who is the Sports Manager of  Antakya, city representative of chess Sultan Daban. Secondly; Celalettin Lekesiz who is the Governer of Antakya and Lutfu Savas the mayor of Antakya are noticed about the improvement of chess and its potential in that city. Those selected names played an important role to promote the city in worldwide, to develop the extraordinary potential of chess both in country and in Antakya. The most important support is being host for the 2010 World Women Chess Championship to attract more girls in that eminent sport. The world’s most popular and strong women players are about to league together in Antakya for the title of “World Champion”.

2009 Antakya Municipality Chess Tournament

The recognition of Antalya with this championship will not only increase interiorly but also globally. The other significant progress in this city of chess is related with the application of high level chess trainers that Turkish Chess Federation is trying to generalize across the country. 37 years old Turkoman Grandmaster Handzar Odeev has been working as a trainer of new talented players and teachers for 3 months. The Mayor of Antakya Mr. Savas already supported him to get residence permit. He also played an important role during the opening process of Chess Center.

TURKISH CHESS FEDERATION