Busy year for Plumtree chess

Nkosilathi Sibanda, [email protected]

CHESS players in the border town of Plumtree have been urged to start preparing for a busy year ahead, mainly tournaments and workshops.

The call comes at a time when the Plumtree District Chess Association has just conducted its annual strategic review, where it was acknowledged that players needed more match time.

The association’s calendar of events for 2024 reveals there are 10 planned tournaments from February until year-end. The first competition will be the Plumtree Open on February 21. This will be followed by a series of closed-circuit events every month.

Plumtree District Chess Association chairman Petros Maphosa told Zimpapers Sports Hub that they want to help players prepare for major provincial and national tournaments.

“We have reviewed our activities calendar for 2024. Out of this, what came out strongly was the issue of tournaments as we would want to have as many of them. The more players are engaged in the game, the better the chances of performing better at bigger tournaments elsewhere.

“As the Plumtree District Chess Association, it is within our plans that we have more chess tournaments with better prizes.

Motivated players play better. It was realised that if we fail to give decent prizes in our competitions, we would have done a huge disservice to the players. We are committed to finding sponsorship and other financial resources to make this possible,” said Maphosa.

He said focus will also be on the training of coaches and arbiters.

“These are very important people in chess. They need to be capacitated if we want to grow our game. Coaches are the backbone of player development while arbiters are crucial in ensuring that players follow the rules.

“If we strengthen their expertise, the better for our players and developmental programmes. We are still working on the dates and venues for the training.”

Previously, coaches in Plumtree have mostly been school teachers. Maphosa said this year they will try to reach out to members of the community to participate.

Having more qualified coaches, Maphosa said, will be good as they push to have more International Chess Federation (FIDE) masters.

For their training clinics for coaches, Plumtree District Chess Association used to hire the services of certified instructors such as Moses Mutipforo and Thadeus Ndebele. – @NkosieLegend