Botswana Chess Federation (BCF)has been forced to reduce their team size for the upcoming 2023 African Online World Schools Qualifying Chess Championships due to financial constraints.
According to a statement from the federation, only 12 players will be fully supported by BCF instead of 36 as it has always been the case.
The African Online World Schools championships is an under 17 tournament, scheduled to be played on the 25th-26th of February 2023.
“Currently we don’t have enough funds to cater for 36 players, that is why we trimmed the number to 12. Remember the 2022 Olympiad depleted our funds. Further, the invitation for this tournament like any other African Chess Confederation(ACC) invitations came late, making it difficult to at least source funds well in time in the form of sponsorships and donations,” said BCF secretary General Mokwaledi Tingwane, explaining that their budget is tight.
According to Tingwane, for the two day online tournament, they have budgeted for roughly P6000 considering the number of players they have committed to assist. The money will go towards the players registration fees, buying data and meals throughout the duration of the tourney.
Traditionally African Schools Individual Chess Championships is an over the board tournament, however it has come as a shock for the competition to be played online this year. When quizzed on the matter, Tingwane said;
“From the ACC calendar we have realised they did not include the over the board African Schools and no reasons were forwarded,” he said.
Further, Tingwane said issues of late invitations of tournaments are a major challenge since it doesn’t give them enough time to prepare for competitions well in advance. He said they are yet to receive invitation for the Zone 4.5 Championships though the tournament is scheduled for March 24th to April 1st in Zimbabwe.
“We are currently sourcing sponsorships from potential sponsors for this tournament , the idea is to send four athletes being; current national champions and two highest rated players or at least if finds are low we will send only the national champions since their reign is coming to an end in April,” said Tingwane.
For the tournament around P36 000 is needed for two players and one official to travel.
“At this point I don’t think they can assist, we have just submitted our budgets for the 2023/24 financial year to be forwarded to Ministry of Sports,” concluded Tingwane when asked if Botswana National Sports Commission (BNSC)can’t help them with supplementary funds since their grant is depleted.
