Ftown chess school aims high despite challenges
Chakalisa Dube | Friday May 24, 2019 11:34
The academy operates from a rented house in Minestone location near Galo Mall. Jeremiah Dikgang, a mathematics teacher at Mmei Junior Secondary School and Thapelo Molefe, own the school.
Molefe runs the school’s day-to-day routines with two employees.
“Nearly two years ago, when we started the centre only a few parents were willing to support us, but things have since changed. Today, we have around 30 regular children who come to the centre paying a certain fee,” explained Dikgang.
“Parents are now supporting us because they have realised that chess is not only a sport, but can improve the learning abilities of their children.”
Before they opened the school, Dikgang and Molefe operated separate academies. Dikgang owned Fountain of Gems Academy while Molefe owned Grivas Academy.
“We realised that there was need to work together so that we can effectively deliver on our mandate of producing quality players. Owning separate entities was also straining our meagre resources,” Dikgang said.
Despite the academy being relatively young, Dikgang said it has already started producing impressive results.
“We have players like Peo Phole who is now playing in the elite league. She is a 12-year-old student at Setlalekgosi Junior Secondary in Francistown School, but plays for a club in Orapa. She is very promising and has even played seasoned campaigners like Naledi Marape and forced her to a draw,” he said.
According to Dikgang, students from Setlalekgosi and Mmei have been dominating high profile local chess competitions something he partly attributes to the support they receive from the academy.
National Debswana Youth Champion Gofamodimo Tahla, Francistown Open Under-16 champion and 2017 junior national champion, Bothe Legang and Chandapiwa Kgomotso, who is the Namibian Open Ladies Champion and senior national team champion, are some of the prominent names that were produced by the academy.
“We believe we are on the right track in terms of turning the centre into one of the best in the country,” he said.Dikgang noted that some learners who are part of the academy did well at the recent Debswana Youth Championships and 30 of them have qualified for the national finals that will also be used to select national team players for the African Youth Chess Championships billed for Namibia.There are six categories for both male and female teams. At the national finals one player from each category will be chosen to represent the country in Namibia.
At the Francistown competition, 120 (10 from each of the six categories from male and female teams) learners qualified for the national finals. Molefe highlighted that the academy’s major challenge is lack of funds. “At times we struggle to pay rent. We are also running short of equipment. The chess equipment, such as clocks and books, is very expensive.
We entirely depend on the equipment we get to win competitions. We want to invest more on advertising so that more parents can send their children to the school. We also hope that the good work we are doing will convince more sponsors to support us,” Molefe said.
“Currently a lady, Angelique Jungo is the one who has been constantly supporting the school, especially some aspiring chess players we have adopted. Those who have been adopted train at the academy for free.”
Jungo has often assisted the school with playing attire amongst others. First Capital Bank also recently sponsored a tournament organised by the academy for its learners and others from neighbouring countries. The bank forked out P20,000 for the tournament. For the same tournament, Tati River Lodge (TRL) offered the venue. The sponsorship from TRL was worth P45,000 according to Molefe.
“We will be opening talks for a long-term sponsorship deal with the bank and we hope that something positive will come out from those negotiations,” he said.