Chess puts smiles on the children’s faces

Chess puts smiles on their faces
October 13 2011 at 10:00am
By Nosipho Luthuli

It’s 1pm and the young “chess masters” at Thandukwazi Primary School in KwaMashu are ready to make a move! The bell rings and suddenly… there’s a rush!

They run across their small playgrounds from their classrooms to the equipment room, to fetch their chess boards, wasting no time because an hour of chess twice a week is just not enough.

They gather at the chess room, all fired up and ready for their warm-up session with chess instructor Lulama Qobo. He’s overwhelmed by their enthusiasm but it puts a warm smile on his face to see how cheerful they are because of chess. He places a mock chess board on the blackboard. Qobo presents a situation and tranquility fills the room… everyone is in thinking mode.

Qobo creates a scenario: Black King G8, White King G6 and White Queen A1. He asks: “Find mate in one.”

The pupils raise their hands, indicating they want to be picked because they know the answer. Some shout out their answers.

Describing the class, Qobo said: “There is more than one answer. The children have to think about it and consider all possibilities. They can’t look at it from just one angle.”

Qobo said the discipline, analytical ability and thought did not stop at training; it transcended their academic performance and became a way of life. He said: “It challenges their minds and does wonders for their numeric and literature skills.”

The charismatic Nhlanhla Zungu, 12, in Grade seven, said ever since he started playing chess in 2008, he had seen a drastic change in his results. Nhlanhla confidently said: “I used to pass with a D aggregate and now I pass with an A aggregate. Ask me a question in Afrikaans and I’ll answer it. I want to carry on playing chess.” He said he liked chess because it enriched his mind. “You can’t play a move that you didn’t think about.”

School principal Thoko Lushaba said Nhlanhla was not the only pupil who benefited from playing chess.

“There is a difference between a pupil that plays chess and one that doesn’t. They are disciplined, they make their own rules when solving problems in class and are now fluent in English and some in Afrikaans because chess has taught them to digest information easily.”

Worried

Lushaba said there was only one thing she worried about: the children don’t have all the equipment to play. They don’t have chess clocks and tables on which to place their boards. She said: “They put them on the teachers’ tables and some children put the boards on the floor. Their uniforms get dirty. I have always seen chess as a classy game, I think it loses its class when they have to play on the floor.”

Thandukwazi Primary introduced chess as an extra-curriculum activity in 2008 when the Durban Chess Metro Academy approached disadvantaged schools to apply for the programme. Many schools applied and six primary schools were selected. They are Phakama Primary, Gobhogobho Primary, Phelelani Primary, Hilda Makhanya, Buhle Primary and Thandukwazi Primary School. The academy focuses mainly on primary schools, but would like to expand.

Deputy chairman at the academy, Desmond Rooplal, said: “We are starting at grass-roots level and we want them to start using their minds at a tender age. They have to learn from this age that they can use their minds to achieve things.”

The academy is a non-governmental organisation and is solely funded by the Victor Daitz Foundation, which supports and funds other worthy courses like the academy.

The academy has four chess trainers, volunteers who are unemployed and depend on a monthly stipend of R2 000 from the foundation to survive. They visit the six schools twice a week for an hour.

Their main goal is to introduce the programme to other schools, but they cannot do this because of financial constraints. They also want to make it part of the learning curriculum but this is, for now, just a dream.

Rooplal said: “We want to promote it as an academic tool because chess has been proven to improve results. But to do this, parents have to be interested as well and also encourage their children to play.”

He said the game was not as popular in KwaZulu-Natal as it should be and that it was difficult for them to get funding because chess is not mainstream like soccer and rugby.

Chess co-ordinator at Thandukwazi, Gugu Shangase, proudly said: “We are the champions, we have 10 cups. We play with schools that are taught by the same people, but we are always winning. There is something special about our school because in everything we do, we excel.”

Thandukwazi has played with teams in Germany and Spain over the internet. The last international game they played was with Germany in 2009, which they won 3-1.

Rooplal said the pupils could not play at provincial level or even national level because that is expensive. He said: “You have to compete with people on a high level to grow and reach the next level.”

Source: http://www.iol.co.za