05 Jul 2020

African Chess Confederation has appointed Botswana Chess Federation president, Motlhokomedi Thabano, chairperson of the Continental Chess in Education Commission for Africa.

Thabano, who will serve in the position for four years, said in an interview that he was happy for the appointment.

He said in 2018, he was nominated by the World Chess Federation president to serve in the Fide Education Commission as a member and was one of the two Africans serving in the commission.

He said in 2019, he attended a Chess in Education Commission Congress in Armenia hosted by chairman of Fide Education Commission Grandmaster Smbat Lputian.

He said he learnt on how chess could be used to improve academic performance, if it was a mandatory subject at primary schools.

There were researchers from Chess Scientific Research Institute (CSRI) including psychologists, sociologists and scientists, adding that all the professionals made presentations on the benefits of chess if it was used as an academic tool for learners and even taken as part of the curriculum.

He said some benefits derived from teaching chess to lower primary school pupils were visualisation, calculations, pattern recognition, positional evaluation, analytical skills.

Thabano said in Europe and America, countries had introduced chess in their educational programs and that resulted in students’ academic performance improving exponentially.

However, he said, Africa had been lagging behind in that good initiative, hence a new committee was formed primarily to head the project of chess as an academic tool to improve academic performance.

“As a teacher, I can bear witness to the fact that a fraction of learners in schools, who take chess as a sport, more than 90 per cent of them excel academically,” he said.

He cited Woman FIDE Master (WFM), Besa Masaiti, who recently completed her BGCSE and garnered 48 points, noting that in the 2018 Junior Certificate results, six students got merit and 33 per cent of them were chess players.

Thabano said he aimed at introducing the program in the whole of Africa, adding that he would be working with a committee of members from different countries, including Jeffrey Nguma from Zambia, who will be the commission secretary.

“Positive response from Ministries of Basic Education on using Chess as an academic tool in Africa will be the beginning of solving the academic crisis,” he said hoping that the responsible minister would support the idea. Ends