Online chess to drive growth in the region

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.