BCF revels in lap of success
The Botswana Chess Federation (BCF) calendar is undoubtedly imprinted in the country’s sports arena following a successful 2015 season.
'We have successfully handed the calendar for the year 2015 and we are happy to report that it was a huge success,” said BCF president Tshenolo Maruatona at the association’s Annual General Meeting in Tlokweng over the weekend. Addressing BCF affiliates, an elated Maruatona said, “Our calendar catered for various stakeholder groups and this has seen the federation hold events almost every weekend.”
“The Metropolitan chess championships and the Debswana Botswana Open remain the biggest tournaments in our chess calendar. In the year 2015, we have seen successful execution of these events.” Maruatona said the level of play and competitiveness has improved drastically and the BCF continues to unearth new talent in the country through such events.
“The Botswana Chess Open championships continue to attract players from the neighbouring African countries. This has gone a long way in inspiring our local players to raise the bar in defending the pride of the country”. Moreover, Maruatona said Botswana Chess continues to compete in a number of events in Africa and the rest of the world, adding that this is key in measuring themselves against international competition.
On the chess administration front, Maruatona said they continue to recognise the importance of building capacity amongst the personnel. “I am happy to point out that we have seen an increase in the number of officials who have been accorded recognition mostly by the world chess body.” Maruatona said the association held an Arbiters’ training Seminar last year where 17 of its locals were awarded Arbiter norms. “This number adds to other existing arbiters that the federation has trained over the past years.”
“I wish to point out that there is still a lot that needs to be done in increasing the numbers of fide trained arbiters in Botswana. We are cognisant of the financial constraints of hiring a FIDE accredited trainer to run the courses locally, but it remains our resolute endeavour to find affordable ways of conducting the training sessions in Botswana.”
Over the past year Maruatona said they have seen keen interest by continental event organisers in engaging our local administrators to partake in their events. “Notably Tshepiso Lopang and Vincent Masole have been actively involved in a number of events around Africa as arbiters. On the follow up, Mr Masole will be an arbiter at this year’s chess Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan.”