Gift of Chess Global Head Namangale encourages Ghana prison authorities to collaborate with Malawi on Chess in Prison 

* Representing the Gift of Chess, I visited Accra prison and played chess with juvenile inmates who are chess players

* I also had an opportunity to engage with sports officials from Congo Brazzaville where we discussed chess matters and gifted them with chess sets

By Duncan Mlanjira

Global Head of US chess charity, The Gift of Chess, Susan Namangale has returned from Accra, Ghana where she went as Zone 4.5 president for the Africa Individual Chess Championship and while there, she visited prisons where she donated chess sets.

Namangale said she took the opportunity to discuss with the Ghana prison authorities how they can collaborate with Malawi on the Chess in Prison program which she initiated back home.

“Representing the Gift of Chess, I visited Accra prison and played chess with juvenile inmates who are chess players,” she said. “I presented to the prison chess sets while also discussing how the two countries’s prison authorities can collaborate on this program. 

“I also had an opportunity to engage with sports officials from Congo Brazzaville at the Congo Consulate where we discussed chess matters and gifted them with chess sets.

“While in Accra, I participated in the preparation of chess teachers course and this will help me to impart skills to our trainers and learners at Dadaz Chess Academy. 

Namangale also played at the Africa Individual Chess Championship mostly as ceremonial as she made it clear before departure that she will participate in order to motivate and encourage ladies across Africa to play chess at international level.

“My participation really motivated many,” she said. “It was a tough tournament as I played against national champions of different federations and I only finished with 3 points out of the 9 rounds played.

 

“As zonal president, I came back proud after my South Africa female Women International Master (WIM) Jesse February clinched gold and my Zambian male player, International Master (IM) Chitumbo Mwali clinched bronze with other zonal players finishing up in top 10. 

“The open section was won by Grandmaster (GM) Baseem Amin of Egypt. My best moments were seeing young girls like 12-year-old Debora Quickpen of Nigeria playing amazing chess moves and finishing on 4th position.”

She added that The Gift of Chess gave out chess sets to all winners of the Africa Individual Chess Championship and Zone 4.5 players that were in Accra.

“I have also managed to mobilise 1,500 chess sets that will be distributed to Malawi schools. I return from Accra a very satisfied chess person.”

“The closing ceremony was colourful and was spiced with a FiDE torch relay as part of celebrating 100 years of the international chess federation.

She added that on her return, she stopped  over in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to interact with that country’s the Gift of Chess ambassadors.

Dadaz Chess Academy, with support from the Prison Commissioner General, engineering company Mota Engil and M1 Electronics, organised two prison teams of Maula and Zomba prisons that participated in the intercontinental Online Chess Championship in October last year.

This was the first time for Malawi to register prison chess teams that saw Maula team finishing in quarterfinals and all the participants received certificates.

The Prison Chess for freedom Outreach reached out to 16 penitentiaries in Malawi where strong clubs were formed at Maula, Zomba, Biyadzi Juvenile and Nkhotakota where tournaments were organised within the prisons walls and awarded prizes and medals.

At Nkhotakota Prison, the inmates played with Nkhotakota Chess Club members while Maula Prison — where Dadaz team visits players on fortnightly basis, had two tournaments sponsored.

Dadaz thus plans to expand the prison outreach, which Namangale enhanced after she attended Chess for Freedom conference in Chicago, USA and through her experience when she visited Cook County Sheriff — USA’s second largest prison — she was inspired to extend her chess in prison program at Maula Prison to other penitentiaries.

Chess in Prison is a tool to improve the quality of life for inmates as they prepare for liberation and Namangale also facilitated that Malawi inmates participate in international online chess games.

Whilst also in the US,  Namangale got connected with Russell Makofsky, founder of The Gift of Chess — a global sports charity that is transforming lives through its universal language of chess — that saw Dadaz Academy being appointed as its ambassador.

Namangale herself was appointed Global Head of The Gift of Chess and for the last quarter of 2023, the Academy has distributed over 1,000 chess sets (5 set gifts) across schools and prisons — provided by the US global sports charity.

“The year 2023 was a great and busy year for Dadaz Chess Academy as we contributed significantly to CHESSAM’s agenda to making Malawi a chess-playing nation,” said Namangale in her end of the year 2023 report.

The Academy also sent three of its talented children to the Africa Youth Chess Championship hosted in Egypt to provide them with valuable competitive experience and also fostered interactions among participants from different African nations.