Online chess to drive growth in the region
Calistus Kolantsho | Saturday October 16, 2021 06:00
The zone's marketing and communications director, Charles Masaiti said many players who often miss national team selection, owing to limited places, could alternatively use the online tournaments as a pathway to improving their skills. “Zone 4.5, under the leadership of Joe Mahomele who is also president of South Africa Chess Federation, decided to come up with innovative measures which are meant to enhance the capability of the zone. The efforts that each federation makes are not enough as they need support.
Our governments in the region are doing their best and expectations are not met. What we are trying to do is enhance performance,” he said. Masaiti said they want to come up with ways of doing things like proposing new models and also assist each federation to be business-minded and stop depending on handouts. He said players improve through the number of games they play and the number of games cannot be dependent on an individual countries. “We are trying to use our region and host many tournaments. One of those tournaments is the Four Nations Tournament.
We could have already held it but we have a problem with Angola because sport is still suspended. We were forced to postpone the tournament to October 29-31 (2021),” he said.
The Four Nations chess tournament, which is an extension of the 10 nations online tournament, was originally scheduled to feature Angola, Botswana, South Africa and Zambia. Masaiti said plans to replace Angola with another federation are underway in case the Angola Sports Council does not authorise them to participate.
Masaiti said in the interim, they want the players to have many pathways and choose where they want to play. He said before the main tournament, a curtain-raiser will be played online on October 23. “The online tournament will give individuals an opportunity to players who are not selected into national teams. It will be an opportunity for them to improve their skills. We believe with these initiatives we are going to make a difference and we will see players with rates going up and new titles,” Masaiti said. He said during the suspension of the sport due to the COVID-19 pandemic, chess was the only sport that stayed afloat.
He said each federation is expected to have more than 15 players competing in the Four Nations Tournament. Masaiti said during the tournament, each player is allowed to play anywhere. “The good thing about online chess is that you can play anywhere.
We are going to be using a platform called Tornelo and it can identify when someone is cheating,” he said. Masaiti said there are rules to be followed, including that when someone is playing at home, nobody should enter the room and windows should be closed.
He added that the screens should be shared with everyone. The Local Organising Committee comprises Simbarashe Murimi (chief arbiter), Chanda Nsakanya (Zone 4.5 technical and online chairperson), Masaiti and Mahomele (zonal president).