20 Aug 2017

The Fédération Internationale des Échecs or World Chess Federation (FIDE) president, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov recently paid a courtesy call on the Minister of Basic Education,Dr Unity Dow.

The minister appreciated the support FIDE continued to give to Botswana Chess Federation and noted that in the last two years, her ministry tried to broaden children’s learning at school, and that one of the things they had in mind was to introduce chess as part of the curriculum.

“Chess instills discipline among students. One of the things I realised during my visit to Russia is the discipline in schools; there is low drop out of students and low drug usage in schools,” she said.

Minister Dow said when one watches chess they were forced to admire the players because of the discipline, concentration and thinking they put in the game.

“It is something we will love to support because with chess, discipline becomes very important, clarity becomes important. So for one to not pollute their mind with drugs chess can really help,” she said.

In his address, FIDE president, Ilyumzhinov stated that their visit was to sell the idea of introducing chess to all schools.

He said when children play chess their level of education starts to rise.

“Students who take part in chess normally do well in their academics, we believe as FIDE that chess is gym for the brains as it encourages students to concentrate, participate and focus in class,” he said.

Ilyumzhinov said after introducing “take chess to schools” in the Republic of Kalmykia (Russian Federation), children began to excel not just in chess but academically in the subjects of mathematics and science.

He said the federation had a programme called “chess against drugs” whose aim was to fight the use of drugs in sports and in schools as well as offering chess scholarships to Russia where students would study Russian during their first year then chess and other sporting activities.

He further said the Botswana chess federation would send two students for the programme.

For his part, Botswana Chess Federation president, Mothokomedi Thabano said it would be good for the Ministry of Basic Education to adopt the take chess to schools programme since chess was inclusive and catered for the partially blind and the blind.

“Chess is inclusive, everyone can play chess, even those who are blind or partially blind can play it,” he said. ENDS