The game of chess will become a mandatory subject in all public schools in the South Caucasus country of Georgia starting in September this year, it was announced on Friday.

The announcement was made while Georgian Education Minister Dimitri Shashkini and former world chess champion Gary Kasparov presented a computer-aided chess program to the Tbilisi No.1 Experimental School on Friday.

The chess program was written by Gary Kasparov himself especially for Georgian school children so as to assist them play online games.

Chess is listed as among the top 10 national sports in Georgia, behind football, rugby, basketball, wrestling, judo and tennis, but in front of water sports, boxing and martial arts.

Georgia has produced such women's world chess champions as Nona Gaprindashvili and Maya Chiburdanidze and world title challenger Nana Alexandria.