10 Jun 2025

 The Africa Chess Confederation has appointed Goitsemodimo Makgatle as Team Captain to lead African countries at the 2025 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships. 

According to Women in Sports Botswana (WASBO), Makgatle is leading a team comprising countries such as Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Uganda, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Libya. The tournament which started yesterday in London, United Kingdom will end  June on 16. Makgatle exhibited much appreciation when narrating the good news about being tasked to fill the big shoes of leading the African squad. 

“Being selected as team captain for the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships is an incredible honour. I feel deeply proud, humbled and grateful for the trust placed in me. It is a moment I will cherish forever. I believe my consistent commitment to the game, leadership qualities, and experience as an administrator played a key role in this selection,” said Makgatle. 

Makgatle said she had always strived to uplift the team spirit and led with purpose whenever tasked to lead. 

“Last year I took a team of youth players to South Africa for the Africa Youth Chess Championships and also a team to the World Youth Chess Championships to Brazil. Those players did exceptionally well and continued to make the country proud,” she said adding that representing Botswana on a global stage, especially as captain, had always been one of her biggest dreams. 

“This moment feels like a dream come true. I believe this is also a step in the right direction by Africa Chess Confederation through the leadership of Tshepiso Lopang, who is the President of the aforesaid confederation, in ensuring that ladies are also given leadership roles to empower them,” said Makgatle.

She encouraged local chess players to believe in themselves and trust that they too had much potential to achieve what they wanted to do in life hence they must aim where eagles soar and develop ‘the sky is the limit’ mentality.  Makgatle said her journey with chess started from junior school until at the University of Botswana and along the way she was selected for the national team. 

“The furthest I went was to represent the country in South Africa in one of the championships there. In 2023 the president of Botswana Chess Federation, Mooketsi Segaise requested my assistance with taking one of the roles in the committee after most of the members resigned. That gave me an opportunity that I found very exciting and immediately, within two days, I said yes to Mr Segaise and everything started like that. 

Makgatle believed that since then her potential captivated the attention of the international chess eyes to the extent that they opted for her to lead the African Team. She said in other achievements, there was a Fair Play seminar held in South Africa last year and she managed to attain the Fair Play Title Expert Candidate and through it she was able to be a Fair Play personnel in the chess tournaments. Fair Play, explained Makgatle, was the one that was used to control issues of cheating during the chess game. Makgatle said she was currently enrolled in the Chessing Education Programme at the Aegean University through the sponsorship of the Africa Chess Confederation. ENDS