Africa-Press – Angola. The Chess Association in the province of Huambo has defined as a commitment, for the next two years, the implementation of an institutional partnership project with primary schools, for massification and development of the sport.
This fact was confirmed this Friday by the local president of the sports association, Baptista Francisco, when speaking to press about the state of chess in this region of the Central Plateau.
He made it known that the aforementioned project, which aims to discover new talents in school institutions, especially in primary education, has already been presented recently to the municipal directorates of Education in Huambo and Mungo, with the aim of promoting “sports/science” .
He said that the implementation of the project in the municipality of Mungo will have the support of the Local Development Institute (FAS) whose protocol, which awaits its implementation, was recently signed.
According to Baptista Francisco, with the implementation of this project, it is intended, through schools and partners, to minimize the difficulties that the association faces in training new athletes and guarantee a progressive growth of chess in Huambo province.
He also said that it was necessary to involve at least four primary schools in the municipality of Huambo and one in each municipality in the province, through the creation of conditions, in terms of rooms and other sports equipment for practicing the sport.
Accordingly, he asked the provincial government of Huambo to include, in future projects for educational establishments, spaces for the practice of board games and with resources to support the costs.
In terms of coaches, he suggested the recruitment of physical education teachers and proper training, in order to train, within their curriculum plans, athletes in these modalities.
Baptista Francisco informed that in the province of Huambo, 210 athletes are controlled, in the youth, junior and senior categories, enrolled in the clubs Petro do Huambo, Ferrovia, Grupo Desportivo da Educação and Academia Sport JGM, in six groups and individuals.
As for the current state of the sport in Huambo, he said it was quite satisfactory, due to the competitive level that the athletes have shown, as well as the regular participation in provincial and national competitions.
He regretted, however, the lack of support from the government and the business class of the province, despite chess being one of the modalities with unique particularities, as it requires little financial resources for its practice.
He also pointed out the lack of specific game rooms and the lack of its own headquarters for the association.
From the material point of view, he said that the association is well served with the provision of 40 boards, of which 20 have recently been made available by the Angolan Chess Federation, which are quite sufficient for the practice of the modality.
Regarding the balance of 2022, he said that 10 activities had been carried out, which consisted of a provincial championship, while other tests were carried out on the occasion of national and international holidays, as well as participation in the National Championship, in the province of Bié, where Huambo occupied the fifth place, against the ninth of the last edition.
Chess is one of the oldest board games in the world and also one of the most popular. It is known as the sport-science that occupies athletes’ free time helping them to open their minds and add greater thinking capacity in a short period of time.
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