Anti-bullying chess tournament held to raise awareness
"It is still going to be a long journey for the leaders, but they are excited, looking forward and very hungry to be the best of the best.”
Ipeleng Cares Foundation (ICF) Leaders Against Bullying made their first appearance in a professional chess tournament on Saturday, November 5 held at the FNB campus building in Fairland.
Chess Heroes, a private tutoring institution in association with ICF, planned an anti-bullying chess tournament and invited over 150 children from various chess clubs to come enjoy the 55 minutes (5 rounds) tournament.
According to the organisers, bullying is on a rise and not enough awareness is being raised.
Chess Heroes was impressed with how the ICF uses chess as a remedial activity to help eradicate bullying and they embarked on a course to draw sponsors to support and promote chess as an anti-bullying agent.
Even though the leaders are not yet rated players, they had their first experience of playing against CHESSSA rated players and national chess champions within their age groups.
Some of the leaders such as Tsebo Mofokeng, who is currently the chess player of the year in the leaders against bullying program did exceptionally well attaining 3.5 points out of 5 in the U14 group.
Tsebo said that the biggest hurdle in the beginning was keeping a record sheet and controlling the timer while playing, which is something she was not used to.
Lindelani Mutavhatsindi who is the current Leader Against Bullying of the Year 2021 received a recognition for his performance in the U18 group.
The children were also provided with lunch meals courtesy of FNB, ICF also received 15 sponsored chess mats and pieces for the foundation’s Fleurhof community chess club which takes meets every Friday between 2:30pm and 4:30pm.
All this was courtesy of Chess Heroes and its respective partners, FNB and SWGC attorneys Inc.
“We are eternally grateful to Corno Klaver, founder of Chess Heroes for taking so much interest in developing the children and ensuring they get the necessary resources such as the chess mats and pieces to get started.
“It is still going to be a long journey for the leaders, but they are excited, looking forward and very hungry to be the best of the best,” said the founder of ICF Ipeleng Mofokeng.
