Nigeria Chess Federation (NCF) Vice President, Prince Adeyinka Adewole believes its high time Nigeria produce her first ever Chess Grandmaster.
Speaking at the award ceremony organized by the Oyo State Chess Association to honor three prominent chess heavyweights of Oyo State origin, Prince Adeyinka assured that the work been put into the chess development at the grassroots level will yield a good result in no time.
“Whenever we organize tournament, there are special categories for the young ones, we have the U-8, U-10, U-12, U-15 up to U-20”, the Prince began.
“We agree that is where you can find find the Grandmaster of tommorow that we are looking for because right now, Nigeria does not have a chess Grandmaster.
“That Grandmaster might not be among the people who are matured now but from the little ones, 8 years, 10 years, 15 years, so we are focusing on them.
“There are two tournaments coming up in December that is targeted at the youths and that is to tell you that we are actually targeting the young ones.
“We also have the National Youth Championship in Nigeria, where we pick the best amongst these youths to come and play in the Masters category.
“From what we have seen, the youths are growing fast. We have seen some of the youths beating the veterans. We believe the future is very bright for Nigerian chess.”
Speaking of the tournaments coming up in December, Prince Adeyinka said the
Nigeria Civil Defense will bankroll a chess event in Lagos come December 15 – 18, 2022.
The second event will be announced at a later date.
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