Chess leadership pens down ambitious plans
Calistus Kolantsho | Tuesday August 4, 2026 10:18
The AGM deliberated on various matters including constitutional review, improvement of ratings and increase of affiliates amongst others. Speaking at the meeting, president, Kutlwano Jady Tatolo highlighted the need to measure membership in order to ascertain if they are doing their job or sleeping on the job.
Tatolo revealed that BCF has 11 affiliated clubs from the 12 that they had when they came into office last year.
She implored the clubs to comply with the Registrar of Societies in order for BCF to be in the right books with Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC).
Tatolo said BCF is fully compliant with BNSC and FIDE while the financial report was not audited and the plan is to have all of them audited when they are presented in the next AGM.
“According to the World Chess Federations (FIDE) report, we have 450 registered players for Botswana, it is an accumulative of all players including inactive players, in that number we have 227 active juniors and 69 certified officials,” she told the meeting.
“It is a generous number and we hope to increase the number of national arbiters, to FIDE arbiters to international arbiters. “Botswana is ranked number 129 out of 204 registered federations, this is nothing to be proud of. We should make a difference in the next 12 months.”
Tatolo added they were proud of how Botswana hosted the 2026 Africa Individual Chess Championships that were held in Jwaneng in June, where Grand Master (GM) Bilel Bellahcene of Algeria defended his title.
Bellahcene became the only second player in the history to retain the African Open Championship crown.
The silver medal went to GM Bassem Amin of Egypt while International Master Banele Mhango of South Africa walked away with the bronze medal.
Woman Grand Master (WGM) Wafa Shahenda of Egypt claimed her fourth African Individual Chess Championship title and her fellow counterpart, WGM Wafa Shrook settled for the silver medal and Woman FIDE Master (WFM) Mongeli Sasha of Kenya won the bronze medal.
“From the list of top 100 rated men players, our highest rating is 2230 and lowest is 1646, from the top rated 34 players in the Women Section, our top rating is 1952 and lowest is 1413 and Under 18 Open range is 1999 to 1415 and women is 1893 to 1413,” Tatolo said.
“These ratings will form part of the baseline of our target for improvement for the next 12 months, in terms of competitions we target, competitions we host ourselves and the players that we want to participate and what they can do to this numbers.
“For example, we were intentional during the BetExplosion National Chess Championship by inviting retired players who are holding heavy ratings so that the number can improve. It does not mean active players can automatically take away those ratings,” she added.
For his part, BCF technical and ratings director, Thompson Modisane said for ratings to improve, the league has to be brought back.
He noted that in the past when players were active, the ratings were increasing because every weekend, players were always engaged in the league.