09 Nov 2015

Botswana Chess Federation (BCF) president, Tshenolo Maruatona, says his organisation aims to increase the number of players coming through its development programme.

Outlining BCF strategic plan during the federations’ media day in Tlokweng on Saturday (November 7), Maruatona explained that his federation was keen to work hard on youth development.

“The federation has a very robust plan for advancement of chess at a lower level. We have been committed to it over the last three years,” Maruatona explained.

He said their plan entailed using schools chess to reach out to many children and staging many competitions to give them a platform to develop.

“We have trained trainers who develop young players. 

We are using schools because that is where the biggest number of children are based,” the chess leader said.

Maruatona said the federation had a commitment to have chess played in every part of the country. 

He said he was pleased that BCF had made great strides in making chess popular.  The federations’ ratings director, Vincent Masole, explained that they were in the process of developing their own ratings system. 

He said the system would be used for pairing of players in future youth competitions.

Masole also said their plan to increase the number of rated players was succeeding. 

“We have decided to play rated tournaments every month in order to increase the number of rated players.  

The number has now increased to 142,” he said.

He explained that ratings were used to determine the best players in the country and the best chess playing countries in the world.

Botswana is currently ranked sixth in Africa and 106 in the world.

Meanwhile, the federation’s media chess tournament which was held on the same day, attracted a total of 20 participants from various media house.

The competition was sponsored by LTS Enterprises. Kewaone Thokaletso from the Nation won the four rounds competition after winning all matches. Second position went to Mpho Aaron of Botswana Television. Ends