See the guy in the centre of the photo? That’s Nduduzo, who is affectionately known as “Mr. Chess” at Thanda. Before Mr. Chess started teaching the game to Thanda students, the majority of children had never played before. Now, we don’t want to brag or anything but we’ve gotten pretty good at the game of chess, so we figured why not host a friendly competition?

Last Saturday, five local schools participated in our community’s first ever chess tournament. A total of 30 boys and girls competed, opting to spend their Saturday playing chess rather than football (a rarity!). The tournament was open to all ages but was mainly attended by primary school children and one high schooler. Boys and girls were split into separate brackets, with one winner chosen from each. The draw for playing was random, with multiple rounds leading to one final round that can only be described as incredibly epic. Each winner received his/her very own chess set along with the glory of being Chess Champions of our community 🙂