* Paid courtesy visit to the Minister of Sports who has agreed to grace the tournament
* Brings chess books as donation for Dadaz Academy to set up a chess library
* The German is set to play a friendly match fellow Fide Master Joseph Mwale — Malawi’s celebrated chess player
By Duncan Mlanjira
Fide Master (FM) Ulrich Zimmerman from Germany, is in the country to grace Dadaz Chess Academy’s ‘Back to School’ kids tournament scheduled for Saturday, August 26 at Gateway Mall in Lilongwe.
Dadaz Academy’s founder, Susan Namangale said they paid a courtesy visit to Minister of Sports, Uchizi Mkandawire who has confirmed to grace the tournament as guest of honour.
Namangale said she was astounded to discover that Sports Minister Mkandawire is a chess player and engaged Zimmerman to a fun game in his office.
Zimmerman is also expected to play a friendly match with fellow Fide Master, Joseph Mwale — Malawi’s celebrated chess player, to spice up the kids tournament.
Zimmerman is Zimpertec’s chief operating officer, and his company is sponsoring the tournament together with Malawian business partner, Vitalite — and he has brought with him chess books as a donation to Dadaz Academy to set up a chess library.
“We are excited for the kids,” said Namangale, who is former president for Chess Association of Malawi (CHESSAM) and current president for Zone 4.5 regional chess body.
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 two companies are supporting the tournament in cognizance that it will serve to inculcate the spirit of chess in schools ahead of the next academic term.
In a joint statement, the three partners say 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.”
Meanwhile, three of Dadaz 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.
Lucie
Eight-year-old 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
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
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.
Alipo, son to 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.
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 Namangale maintains that chess is an important tool to build strategic leaders of tomorow and an important tool for mindset change, which is an enabler in MW2063 national vision.
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Dadaz Chess is an ambassador of The Gift of Chess in Malawi, and is celebrating the success of the distribution of 1,000 free chess sets in the country which were made available by the US chess charity.
Led by Namangale — who is The Gift of Chess Global Head — distributed the chess sets nationwide to schools in 22 districts in partnership with Dadaz volunteers.
When Namangale attended a Chess for Freedom conference in Chicago, US in May, she networked with founder of The Gift of Chess, Russell Makofsky who made a decision to announce the partnership withe Dadaz Chess Academy to help spread The Gift of Chess across Malawi.
As Dadaz Chess Academy hit the ground running in the distribution of the 1,000 chess sets, Makofsky announced in June that Namangale, who is also Malawi National Council of Sports board member, was appointed The Gift of Chess Global Head.
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