* Lucie Chimeta, 2022 Under-8 girls national champion, to play in Under-8 girls category
* Alipo Namangale, gold medalist at Mpilo Tournament in Mzuzu in the youth category to play in Under-8 Open
* Mphatso Chikopa, bronze medalist at Central West Education Division, will be in Under-14
By Duncan Mlanjira
Three of Dadaz Chess Academy products, Lucie Chimeta, Alipo Namangale and Mphatso Chikopa, will represent Malawi at the Africa Youth Chess Championship to be held in Cairo, Egypt from September 1-9 — sponsored by their parents.
Eight-year-old 8 years Lucie, to play in Under-8 girls category, is 2022 Under-8 girls national champion; was part of national team at 2022 Africa Youth Championship in Zambia; a gold medalist at Dadaz Chess Championship in Mzuzu; was the youngest player at the 2023 National Championship and is a silver medalists at 2023 Africa Schools Chess online qualifiers.
Alipo, also 8 years old to play in Under-8 Open category, is gold medalist at Mpilo Tournament in Mzuzu in the youth category, silver medalist in Central Region Chess League Open Championship youth category, 2018 Under-8 boys national champion; and also represented Malawi at the Under-7 2021 Africa Schools chess Championship in Kenya and as Under-8 at the 2022 Africa Schools chess Championship in Zambia.
Mphatso (13), who will be in Under-14, is a bronze medalist at Central West Education Division, silver medalist at 2022 Dadaz Chess Open in Lilongwe and also represented Malawi in Under-12 at the 2021 Africa Schools Chess in Kenya.
Chess Association Malawi (CHESSAM) general secretary, Gift Howahowa confirmed that all three are are self-sponsored and recognised by the association since Dadaz Chess Academy is an affiliate CHESSAM.
Alipo, son to former CHESSAM president, Susan Namangale, started playing at age 5, Lucie — whose mother played chess when she was in school was introduced to the game at the age of 6 while Mphatso was at 11 years old.
Founded by Namangale, Dadaz Academy 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.
It so far has 3 centres in Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Nkhotakota and it launched its own Chess Club and Namangale, who is the current Zone 4.5 president, earlier said 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 had 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.”
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Meanwhile, Dadaz Chess Academy has partnered Zimpertec and Vitalite host Back to School kids’ tournament scheduled for August 26 that serves to inculcate the spirit of chess in schools ahead of the next academic term.
This is in celebration of the success of the distribution of 1,000 free chess sets in the country made available by the US chess charity and reached nationwide to schools in 22 districts in partnership with Dadaz volunteers.
In a joint statement, the three partners said the “sponsorship comes at the right time to give an opportunity for school children to test their skills and play with other children, and it aligns with CHESSAM’s agenda to make Malawi a chess playing nation”.
“Dadaz Chess Academy has been organizing tournaments targeting children as these are the future leaders with great potential to become grandmasters and has committed to supporting CHESSAM by holding chess tournaments for children.”
FM Ulrich Zimmerman
FM Joseph Mwale
Zimpertec is a German-based company working closely with Vitalite Malawi to ease access to quality solar products for the people of Malawi and together they accelerate electricity access in rural areas by providing long-lasting PayGo Solar Home Systems.
The Zimpertec Chief Operating Officer, Ulrich Zimmerman is a chess player and FIDE Master (FM) and is set to spice up the kids’ tournament by a playing a friendly match with Malawi’s celebrated chess player, FM Joseph Mwale.
In announcing the sponsorship, Zimpertec and Vitalite expressed their excitement and look forward to it — whose prizes include academic materials such as Brick SHS, school bags, calculators, and others.
