Dadaz Chess Academy targets to promote grassroots players to help Malawi become a strong chess playing nation

* As its chess club is launched with pomp through a juniors tournament in Lilongwe

* The current Zone 4.5 president has big plans to reach out to the youths and make chess popular amongst school children

* Chess is an important tool to build strategic leaders of tomorow and an important tool for mindset change

* Which is an enabler in MW2063 development blueprint

By Duncan Mlanjira

Dadaz Chess Academy  — founded by former Chess Association Malawi (CHESSAM) president, Susan Namangale has the quest to groom prodigies all over the country to promote the sport at grassroots and help Malawi become a strong chess playing nation.

Thus on Saturday, the Academy — which so far has 3 centres in Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Nkhotakota — launched its own Chess Club with pomp by incorporating a juniors’ tournament; hosted by Chill Point in Area 47 sector 3 in Lilongwe to spice up the event in its target of nurturing talent from grassroots level.

Namangale, who is the current Zone 4.5 president, says she has big plans to reach out to the youths and make chess popular amongst school going children.

“Chess is an important tool to build strategic leaders of tomorow and an important tool for mindset change, which is an enabler in MW2063 development blueprint,” she said.

“To change the mindset, it needs people with critical and analytical thinking who see beyond status quo and make the right decisions — and chess is a tool for that.”

In the upper section of the tournament, Auyush Shriyan of Lilongwe was the champion with Lucie Chimeta of Mzuzu Academy as runner-up and Faith Chamdimba also of Lilongwe taking the third position.

In the middle class section, Mzuzu’s Nthambi  Mzungu took the gold medal followed by Utawaleza Nkhono on second place and Wamachiri Masangano on third place — both from Lilongwe.

The lower level — who played with middle level players — was dominated by Lilongwe through Romeu Enea (1st), Tia Kasakula (2nd) and Lwazi Kapsata (3rd).

Chief arbiter for the event, Hope Mwazozo said he was impressed with the children’s chess skills, saying this will improve the sport in the short term and reap out some talented players to represent Malawi at international competitions.

CHESSAM, which has a very sound youth development programme in schools, was represented by its technical director Peter Jailosi, who also said he was equally satisfied that Dadaz Chess Academy — duly  registered under CHESSAM — was taking positive strides.

Dadaz Academy was the first to be registered after the new CHESSAM administration announced its chess academy registration guidelines.

Namangale wrote history in Malawi in 2018 when she became the first woman president of the sport and rewrote if by being the first female chess federation president in Africa.

In May last year, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) — after she was elected the Zone 4.5 — made special recognition of her achievement in the fourth episode of the FIDE Podcast, an initiative born under the umbrella of the Year of the Woman in Chess.

The monthly episodes of the podcast feature — in cooperation with FIDE’s Commission for Women’s Chess, Michael Busse of Schachgeflüster podcast, and Lilli Hahn of Chess Sports Association — a series of interviews with remarkable women in the chess world.

FIDE acknowledged that among the key milestones achieved under Namangale’s leadership included:

* Increasing the number of female chess players from less than 10% to over 30%;

* Launching chess in a school development program; and

* Reaching out to rural schools and setting up chess clubs.

“Every child needs to have the privilege of learning chess at school,” she is quoted as saying. “With the support of FIDE and other partners, we have been able to take chess to as many schools as possible — even to rural areas of the country.

“We are training patrons, making them able to teach the basics of chess. Most of the schools do not have the equipment, but we also try to distribute chessboards to schools. In 2018 we had less than 50 kids playing in school chess events, but now we can put together over 500 kids, and we have over 100 schools and clubs where chess is played.”

FIDE also acknowledges that Namangale is not only a chess official, but a chess player and 2019 national women champion.

“When I became a president, I made it clear from the very beginning that my intention was to improve the way we do things — to put up systems in place, and I wanted to be a part of the change. I was not happy with the number of women and girls playing chess.

“For that reason, I decided that I wanted to start playing again so that girls and women would get motivated as they see me as their president also being a part of the games. And from that moment, I saw the numbers going up.

“This time I did not qualify for the Olympiad, but I am happy that I’ve got new ladies who made it to the team and participated in the World Chess Olympiad for the first time. That’s what I call growth. It means we are progressing as a federation,” she was quoted as saying.