Nakapunda sets up chess academy

NAMIBIAN chess master Otto Zandell Nakapunda recently started a chess academy to provide high-quality chess lessons and to improve the level of play of its students.

The academy will be known as the Zandell Chess Academy and is still to be officially launched, according to Nakapunda. He said chess has now been officially included in the Namibian sports family by the Namibia Sports Commission (NSC).”This is a big step forward in our quest to introduce chess to all Namibians.There are endless studies proving chess is an excellent tool to help students realise their academic potential,” he said.Giving a brief background on the game in the country, Nakapunda said the Icelandic International Development Agency (ICEIDA), Hrokurin Chess Club in Iceland, the Namibian Chess Federation (NCF) and the Ministry of Sport signed an agreement last year in terms of which ICEIDA is helping to develop chess in Namibia.He said ICEIDA pumped a massive U$272 000 into this project, adding that the NCF has already introduced chess to the masses in the North and is now tackling the South.He said the primary focus is on quantity, but there is a great need to teach quality chess in order to improve the players’ skills.”It is against this background that the chess academy was formed,” he added.He said some of the objectives of the academy are to produce future Brave Knights, while it also aims to help improve students’ analytical skills, creative and abstract thinking, calculation power, concentration and memory, thus helping them realise their academic potential.It also aims to produce a national chess team that will represent the country at the World Chess Olympiad, while the academy will also strive to organise rated tournaments to improve the players’ ratings.The academy will also implement programmes to identify, nurture and develop chess talent.Nakapunda said the one-hour classes will be conducted on Mondays and Wednesdays (Group 1) or Tuesdays and Thursdays (Group 2).The tuition fee is N$200 a month for each player and classes will be held at the Theatre School, 63 Robert Mugabe Avenue in Windhoek.Nakapunda said everybody is welcome, but children should be at least eight years old.The tutor will be Nakapunda himself, one of the country’s leading chess players who has represented Namibia internationally since 1994.Nakapunda said the academy has an agreement of co-operation with the Cape Town Centre of Excellence to provide help and expertise.Students from the academy could travel to Cape Town annually to take part in tournaments and get more training from the South Africans.”This is our humble contribution to Namibia, making her children smarter, thereby adding yet another piece to the puzzle of Vision 2030,” said Nakapunda.He said chess has now been officially included in the Namibian sports family by the Namibia Sports Commission (NSC).”This is a big step forward in our quest to introduce chess to all Namibians.There are endless studies proving chess is an excellent tool to help students realise their academic potential,” he said.Giving a brief background on the game in the country, Nakapunda said the Icelandic International Development Agency (ICEIDA), Hrokurin Chess Club in Iceland, the Namibian Chess Federation (NCF) and the Ministry of Sport signed an agreement last year in terms of which ICEIDA is helping to develop chess in Namibia.He said ICEIDA pumped a massive U$272 000 into this project, adding that the NCF has already introduced chess to the masses in the North and is now tackling the South.He said the primary focus is on quantity, but there is a great need to teach quality chess in order to improve the players’ skills.”It is against this background that the chess academy was formed,” he added.He said some of the objectives of the academy are to produce future Brave Knights, while it also aims to help improve students’ analytical skills, creative and abstract thinking, calculation power, concentration and memory, thus helping them realise their academic potential.It also aims to produce a national chess team that will represent the country at the World Chess Olympiad, while the academy will also strive to organise rated tournaments to improve the players’ ratings.The academy will also implement programmes to identify, nurture and develop chess talent.Nakapunda said the one-hour classes will be conducted on Mondays and Wednesdays (Group 1) or Tuesdays and Thursdays (Group 2).The tuition fee is N$200 a month for each player and classes will be held at the Theatre School, 63 Robert Mugabe Avenue in Windhoek.Nakapunda said everybody is welcome, but children should be at least eight years old.The tutor will be Nakapunda himself, one of the country’s leading chess players who has represented Namibia internationally since 1994.Nakapunda said the academy has an agreement of co-operation with the Cape Town Centre of Excellence to provide help and expertise.Students from the academy could travel to Cape Town annually to take part in tournaments and get more training from the South Africans.”This is our humble contribution to Namibia, making her children smarter, thereby adding yet another piece to the puzzle of Vision 2030,” said Nakapunda.