Vice President of the Nigeria Chess Federation and Co-organizer of the Olojo Festival World Chess Championship, Prince Adeyinka Adewole has emphasized the need for government to incorporate the game of chess in the national school curriculum.
Prince Adewole stated this on Friday in Ile-Ife at the opening ceremony of the 2024 edition of the annual sporting event holding at the Ife Grand Resorts and Industrial Hub, Ile-Ife.
He noted that Chess as a game of the intellect has proven to be impactful to building the child's cognitive abilities, boosting their critical thinking, strategic planning, and problem-solving skills.
He added that including Chess as a subject in the school curriculum will further simply the task of identifying and discovering talents among school children.
"W have identified that for us to actually achieve the desired progress in chess development, we need to actually take the game to the grassroots which involves going to the schools to identifying those talents we are looking for.
"And that's why at the Federation, we are training and certifying a number of instructors who go the schools and deliver our lectures.
"We are also trying to seek collaboration with ministries of education both at the federal and state levels to see how Chess can actually be considered as part of the curriculum rather than extracurricular activity.", he said.
Earlier in his opening remarks, the Chief Organizer and CEO of Raia Rooks Chess Academy, Hon. Bisi Awope noted that the Chess tournament is passionate move to not only promote the game of chess but essentially use the sport as a veritable tool for the promotion of culture and tourism of Ile-Ife Ife in particular and Nigeria in general.
The 2024 edition of the event, Awope added is a special as it is dedicated to marking the 50th Birthday of His Imperial Majesty, the Ooni of Ife, holding later in the month, 17th of October.
The Olojo Festival World Chess Championship is a two day event which kick-started on Friday and will end today Saturday 5th of October, 2024.
The tournament features a nine rounds of rapid Chess with six rounds held on the opening day.
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