14 Aug 2013

The Re Ba Bona Ha national chess championship has been hailed as an important medium for identifying and nurturing chess talent.

Debswana’s corporate citizenship manager, Barulaganye Mogotsi said the championship must be used to develop top chess players for the future.

Mogotsi stated that Debswana had sponsored Re Ba Bona Ha, a youth sport development programme established by the Botswana National Sports Council (BNSC), in order to assist hone the undoubted talent in the country.

He explained that since 2008, his company had committed over P3.7 million to the Re Ba Bona Ha programme, which has in turn seen the programme growing from just three sports codes then to the current nine.

The programme has produced renowned sports persons such as Kabelo Dambe and Galabgwe Moyana who are professional football players, and Tracy Chaba who has been described as a gem by the volleyball fraternity. Equally, Mogotsi said chess could utilise Re Ba Bona Ha programme to produce future grandmasters.

Meanwhile, in a chess championship held in Gaborone last Saturday, there was a lot of budding young talent on display, giving optimism for the future. The tournament had attracted over 200 young chess players. One such player who showed plenty of promise on the board was Pearl Tau, a student from Donga Secondary School in Francistown, who performed extremely well in the Under-14 girls’ category.

Tau represented the country at the youth chess championships held in South Africa last year. Her performance at the weekend tournament showed that she was growing exceptionally well as a player.

One other such player was Marape ‘Junior’ Marape of Baobao Primary School. Marape won the competition’s Under-10 boys’ category with six points out of seven rounds played. BCF public relations director, Keenese Katisenge said the tournament was used as a yardstick to measure the level of play for the kids at the Re Ba Bona Ha centre.

Katisenge added that the event also helped BCF and BNSC to appreciate a pool of young chess players. Also, she indicated that the tournament guided the growth strategy for the Re Ba Bona Ha programme to other areas in the country.

Further, she said the federation was planning to open the second centre in the northern part of the country in October. Katisenge said BCF’s commitment to grass roots development resonated with the objectives of the Re Ba Bona Ha initiative hence the federation’s undying pledge to incorporate the programme in bigger events.  

The tournament followed the recent activity where children at Re Ba Bona Ha Chess Centre were given opportunity to test their strength against Botswana’s top Woman International Chess Master Boikhutso Modongo in June. Ends