The Cape of Hopes

 This article is the last of three in the Cape series. The first two can be found below:

http://chasingraces.blogspot.com/2022/07/to-cape-with-team-mp-chess.html

http://chasingraces.blogspot.com/2022/07/in-cape-with-team-mpumalanga.html

On the 1^st of July, the first day of the Training Camp, we sat at the breakfast table with the team Managers and coaches. The aim was to ascertain what they had planned for the kids and whether or not it would be sufficient for this level of play. 

Dumisa and I were there as Technical Officials recommended by the  province to National, our roles in relations to Team Mpumalanga was quite unclear, that is why the current President could tell us to stay out of Team MP business and let him run down his ship. We complied, only because the tension was too much for us to continue attempting to reason with him.

We asked the team what equipment they had and what they had planned to do in the training camp. There were no clear answers and clearly no one willing to take charge as there was no Head-Coach to account. Since this was more of the technical part of Chess, Dumisa and I figured it was necessary that we take full control and lead the session.

We explained that this training session would need to serve as preparation for all parties involved; The players needed to have practice playing using clock and notating their moves (They had not been notating at all the qualifying levels). The Coaches would use the notations from the games played to assess the strength of their teams and use that to plan presentations of the aspect of the game they felt their players were lacking; also, this games could be used for doing post-game analysis with the players. The team managers could schedule the sessions, provide pens, notation pads and other assistance that both the players and coaches could need in these sessions.

The plan was clear and everyone had a role to play. I emphasized at some point that the role of the managers also included making sure that the coaches perform their tasks of offering post-game analysis to all players after the games, especially since there was no Head-Coach to manage the Coaches. The team managers were also responsible for making sure that the players go to the Team’s analysis room after finishing their games where they would find their coach waiting and ready to analyze and offer corrective inputs (whether a game was lost or won).

When we arrived at the training hall, we discovered that Team MP did not have Chess Clocks; no Demo-boards; no pens and notation pads. Just a few chess boards that the current president had the foresight to bring. This simply meant that the provincial chess team was never prepared to have a training camp.

We tried then and there to see what we could do with what we had; fortunately, one female team manager had few copies of notation pads for us to make copies of and hand to the players; the current president along with one of the team managers tried to organize some pencils; we then asked the players to use their cell phones to download the Chess Clock or the Lichess App which had a chess clock we could use.

All seemed to be in order and the training was going smoothly until we discovered that over half the players in Team MP did not know how to notate; more than half of them were not comfortable using the chess clock (the time pressure made them anxious, regardless of the time-control); and a great deal of them did not have a sufficient grasp of the Basic Opening Principles!

We had our work cut out for us. We separated the groups and agreed that we would have one group do a lesson on Chess notations, while another group does a session on the Basic Opening Principles. We asked the coaches to volunteer themselves where they felt most comfortable; they pulled back. Dumisa and I had to do those sessions too.

I presented the session on Opening Principles while Dumisa was doing notations with another group.

We did not want to have the players who already knew how to notate and played good chess to be left behind, so we arranged them and had them play a formal game with clocks and notations. Their games were to be analyzed by their coaches in their relative age groups.

The coaches were committed, present and wanted to be of service but they lacked in content. They talked, loud even but it was clear, even to the players, that they had no direction. In some cases it was the lack of coaching experience where a coach knew how to play but hardly ever made time to coach others, so he was unable to tell when a player was not following; jumped from one concept to the next without being able to connect the concepts or check whether the players were following.

In other cases, the coaches were just less skilled than the players they were coaching; the players had more playing experience and sometimes more understanding of the content and the coach was simply in too deep, so his ego got bruised, so he spoke louder changing the subject to the history of Openings and his former days as a chess player.

We tried organizing a session with the coaches so we could show them how to go about analyzing the players’ games but it felt like we were teaching Chess theory to the coaches now. The team of 28 players had only one Chess Coach and 7 managers, it was sad.

This had to be an opportunity for these kids to improve their understanding of chess as some of them were obviously afforded a Chess coach for the first time in this camp. Most of them had gotten to this level just by being the proverbial one-eyed man (or woman) in the land of the blind and the nationals were full of players who could see the full board all the time.

Another opportunity lost.

After Dumisa and I have moved to the hotel where the Technical Officials were accommodated, we could not have contact time with the players. We worked as officials for the full duration of the event and could not even steal some time to analyze games with them.

In between bathroom breaks from the playing hall, I would slide by the Team MP analysis room and find players sitting on the corner licking their wounds while coaches are enjoying a chess game between themselves. If I asked whether they had done analysis with the players, the common responses would be “their notations were not clear so we could not follow the game” (which made sense, somewhat)

This article is starting to drag; let me conclude with the obvious: When people who are appointed or voted into positions fail to play their roles well and fulfill their tasks, the children suffer the consequences.

There are children who were playing for the first and last time in the Schools Nationals Chess Championships this year because of their age. Their one-time experience has now become the opposite of what they had always dreamt it would be. I worry that such experiences ruin the game for the players and we end up losing them forever. Our communities are always offering alternative activities to the kid, activities which are significantly more destructive in nature. This is why when we catch some of the kids from falling in those social traps and offer them chess, we intend to show them their true worth and help them unleash their full potential so that they could help us recruit their peers and help us improve our communities through sport.

Suitable Coaches were available and willing to assist the province, and they will be available again next year. We can only hope that when the time comes again soon for the province to send players to the nationals, they are sure to appoint coaches that will have more to offer to the players in their development.

Bear in mind, the effects of losing a Chess game could be psychologically damaging to a person, especially if they do not understand how they lost. The role of a coach is sometimes to help you discover how you have lost, and show you how to do better next time, thus restoring hope.

Hope cures depression. Coaches are Healers!

Thank you for reading

 

 

 

In The Cape with Team Mpumalanga

 This article is the second part of the earlier published article titled: To The Cape with Team Mpumalanga which could be accessed on the link below

http://chasingraces.blogspot.com/2022/07/to-cape-with-team-mp-chess.html

We arrived in Cape Town at the Western Cape Sport School on the 30^th of June 2022. We had left Mpumalanga on 29 June and spent the night at a hotel in Bloemfontein for some rest. We had to wake up early in the morning to complete the remaining 1000 Kilometers to Cape Town.

The plan was for the team  to spend the first two days having a training camp to prepare the players for the battle ahead. I was there as a Technical Official along with Dumisa Nkosi another fellow Arbiter from the province. Each province was to bring two qualified Arbiters as Technical Officials to assist the National Organisers in the technical running of the event. The technical Officials were not part of the Provincial delegation, they were a part of the National team and therefore were the responsibility of the National Schools Chess structure. The National structure however only assumed responsibility of its Technical officials on the 3^rd of July which was the date of official arrivals and registrations. This meant that for the time being, we were part of the Mpumalanga Contingent and the players could benefit from our experience and expertise.

This article will focus on the non-technical challenges encountered that we believe may have had some devastating effects on the overall team morale and caused us to lose confidence in our leadership and ultimately perform as we did as a province. They include: 

1. Accommodation for the camp 

2. Catering at the Camp 

3. Team Management

4. Provincial Attire

Accommodation

The first two days at the first three nights spent in the Western Cape Sports School were a little hell for Team MP as a whole. We were sleeping at a hostel which had one thin blanket and the temperature felt like it was below zero degrees Celsius.  The boys’ teams (7 boys U/18 and 7 boys U/15) were clustered together in one room with 14 beds.

Catering

The food was always the same macaroni and cheese (and sometimes with mince making it look like a lasagna) for lunch and supper and bread with boiled eggs and either a soy Russian or beef sausage for breakfast (maybe some weet-bix and milk if you woke up early enough); no variety whatsoever.

The chess kids always cried of hunger and could not even focus on the little training we tried to provide for them. Some of them did not eat beef and thus had to starve when the macaroni was served with mince; others did not eat cheese and were also not provided with options on the lasagna days. Some felt the food was not enough and would get really hungry before the next meal could be served; if they ate breakfast at 08h00 which was two boiled eggs and two slices of bread, it would be 5 hours before they could eat lunch at 13h00, which was in some cases, something some players didn’t eat.

Management

This issues were reported to the teams managers to address or at least report and have them resolved as they affected the players wellness and could affect their performance.

When the current president was first told about these challenges on the phone by one coach, he responded that it was not his business as he was only there as Under 18 Boys team Manager. He then hung up the phone immediately. The secretary was called and informed of the matter, we figured she may have called her president to order as he then after came to attend the coach and promised to handle the issues with the officials the next day.

The coaches, managers and us Technical officials sat together and tabled the challenges that would lead to the Chess team not performing, which included the lack of Chess equipment (except for a few chess sets only), the terrible environment (some reported broken windows and doors in their rooms), the hot water that finished before everyone could shower and the terrible attitude of the kitchen staff (I called a few to order for berating the kids unnecessarily making them feel out of place).

These matters where meant to be presented at the Managers meeting with the Department of Sports officials to make them aware of the challenges we were faced with so they could do some corrections to help boost the morale of our players.

Our duly elected leader failed to present the challenges and our kids continued to suffer. I was shocked to hear in the next day, a child asking the kitchen which was serving beef burgers and chips, “what should I do since I do not eat beef?” and the Kitchen staff responded “you will eat chips, we do not have chicken burger patties!”.

I knew it was time for some serious intervention and shouted then and there “NEVER!!, THAT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN. WHAT ABOUT THOSE WHO DO NOT EAT CHIPS?”

It took three hours before they could have chicken prepared and some department officials had to give their store-bought chicken lunch in for the kids to eat.

 

Provincial Attire

On the last night of the training camp, the provincial colours are usually awarded (Handed) to the players and they get to try them on in preparation for the next day. The coaches and managers also get theirs which also look the same as the players’.

It has always been my understanding that the players took first preference in this as they were the ones competing and representing the province in these games. I was wrong.

The current Mpumalanga Schools Chess President collected the bags with one other manager, they called the coaches in a room and selected their own fitting attire and shoes, then went on to attend the players.

It was weird that some of the players wore the same size clothes and shoes with some of the coaches, yet the players ended up with over-sized track-suites and unfitting shoes mostly two sizes smaller.

They would rather look good in the kids attire and have the kids wearing humiliating over-sized attire and painfully tight-fitting sneakers.

I remember suggesting to the current president that he should claim back the shoes from the adults and have the kids try them on first as they wore the same sizes. I was there when the coaches and managers claimed the same sizes that the kids where crying for, yet they decided to keep them.

We had to run around asking to switch sizes with the girls’ teams and also with the other sporting codes to try and find the players proper fitting sizes. Their president was unmoved by this challenged faced by the players. Instead of asking his managers to take responsibility and trade the fitting shoes with the players, he had the nerve to ask the kids to be strong and wear the smaller sized sneakers at least for tomorrow.

It was clear there and there, that this President thinks he represents the teachers instead of the players. Maybe he is a union shop steward in the school where he works and now confuses his roles.

It really made no sense to the kids as to why, after having filled-in form where they had to write down their sizes, they would now come to be expected to wear over-sized clothes and painfully tight sneakers. It was an embarrassment that their president could not understand and therefore could not present their pain to the powers that be. Some kids actually cried when they had they would have to wear these over-sized multiple times folded track pants and jackets throughout the competition. I personally saw some kids walking with a painful limp wearing sneakers one or two sizes smaller because they could not get assisted.

One of the kids I had referred to his coach to switch with, the Interim Mpumalanga Chess President for two reasons:

1.      They both wore a size 5

2.      The Interim president had received the same sneakers in the previous National championships held in February, the player did not.

 

I later discovered that the kid was talked out of the exchange and forced to wear the smaller size and remain in pain. I was disappointed.

It turns out two managers and a coach all wore a size ten, two players needed a size ten sneakers and could not get them; also, three coaches wore a size 8, two players needed a size 8 and could not get them.

It is hard to believe that the team of coaches and managers had the interest of the players at heart. It is no wonder the Provincial Chess team performed poorly. The morale of the players had been in the hands of adults who were there to serve their own personal interests at the cost of the kids.

The next article will focus on the technical challenges that are responsible for the  result suffered. 

To The Cape with Team MP Chess

 So much has happened leading up to the selection of the Mpumalanga Schools Chess team to represent the Province in the National Schools Sports Championships in the Cape. Starting from the age-groups confusion that we faced in the earlier stages when we were informed that the U/18s were not taking part; to the later exclusion of the U/13 and inclusion of both the U/15 and U/18s only.

Even after all this, we still had to battle with the placing of players in relevant age-groups since the South African Schools Chess Association has placed limits in the ages of players in each category.

E.g. U/13 (2010,2011 and 2012), U/15 (2007,2008 and 2009), U/18 (2006,2005 and 2004)

Take note of this as it later became a bigger issue than we had anticipated. (much later, in the third article of this series)

This article will focus on the selection of the entire Mpumalanga Chess contingent, the events leading to the elections and the consequences suffered by the children (the Chess players)

On the 28^th of May 2022 I was the Chief Arbiter at the Ehlanzeni District Schools Chess Selections when both the then President (Chairperson) and  Secretary of the Mpumalanga Schools Chess Organization asked to make an announcement to the teachers in attendance before giving out the results.

The announcement was that this was election year for the Mpumalanga Schools Chess Structure and that they would need help in retaining the two crucial positions they held as a district (Those being the Chairperson and secretary positions).

The Secretary reiterated the matter when she took the platform and emphasized the significance of having had these positions in the region. She stated that this meant that the district got to be the first to receive information and act on time thus enabling their kids not to miss out on opportunities.

She then apologized with some regret, that she would not be running for office this time around since she has too many commitments on her plate; she then strongly urged all in attendance to do all in their power to ensure that the region does not lose their chairperson and support him as he will be running again.

The event went on and we announced the names of the players who would represent the district in the provincials on the 11^th of June in Middelburg. Later on an announcement was made that on the 10^th of June there would be the elections that were spoken about and each district was to bring 10 representatives to vote and also to be voted for in the new committee.

The president of the structure asked me as the appointed Chief Arbiter for the Provincial Schools Chess selections, to travel with them to assist in the preparations and set-up  of the playing venue, have a sleep-over in Middelburg so we are the first to arrive at the playing venue and start as soon as players arrive.

This meant that I got to be the fly in the wall as all this unfolded and did not get asked to declare any form of confidentiality, verbal or signed. I am sharing this right now because I do not wish to see something similar to it happen in the future. Also because I believe that there needs to be an improvement on how elections are done for such crucial positions that affect the future of many of our children.

In the transport on the way to Middelburg for the elections on the 10^th of June, early in the morning, the president and secretary started  the discussion with the district representatives. It came out during  the discussion that the president has had some discussions with the regional leaders of Gert Sibande and Nkangala District and they had arranged that the chairperson of Gert Sibande will be given the Secretariat while Ehlanzeni would retain the Chairperson and Nkangala would take the Treasury (of a structure without funds). Bohlabela was not involved in the discussions and would be engaged in the meeting on arrival.

The Secretary vigorously expressed her disappointment with the arrangement; she was disappointed that the president did not consult with her first before giving her position away to Gert Sibande, and in particular, the current chairperson of the Gert district whom she felt was not up to the task of being Provincial secretary. She suggested that they make some serious changes to this arrangement of she will not stand by it when it is time to vote.

The President reminded the Secretary that it was her who gave him the greenlight to make arrangements to at least retain the Presidency for the region even if it meant giving up the secretariat; it was her who said she did not want to get involved in the arrangements since she did not intend to run and thus wished not to be a part of the discussions. He also explained to the representatives that the secretary never gave him any conditions for the trade-offs and that is why he was surprised to see her expressing concern in any possible outcomes.

The secretary then uttered a shocking statement backed up by some unrecorded complaints she received from teachers and parents in the previous schools nationals which took place in Bloemfontein this February 2022. These complaints pointed out to the incompetency of the Gert Sibande candidate according to the Secretary. We all wished she had communicated those complaints to some structure as that falls under her role as Secretary; then everyone would share her sentiments and understand why she would say the following :

 “I would rather stay as secretary than allow that man to lead our province to ruins. We will rather trade-off the Presidency that lose the Secretariat to Gert”

After having uttered these shocking words, the mood changed and the whole district was now divided in half, everyone uncertain as to whom they would vote with when it all comes down.

The whole meeting was chaotic as it had to be run by the two of them. They could not work together and everyone in the room could sense the tension and the lack of respect. The secretary would speak while the chairperson was still addressing the room; either making a point of correction without permission or addressing someone across the room without regard for protocol.

It was all chaotic until one attendant suggested that they both leave the chairing to a MPUSSO (Mpumalanga Schools Sports Organization) representative so they  could facilitate the elections.

MPUSSO came on and suggested that regions quickly hold a caucus so they can have a unified decision. They were also to decide if they preferred to vote as regions or as individuals.

It was decided that members in attendance would vote as individuals and each region was to bring ten voting members. It turned out that Bohlabela was the only region that brought ten, while Ehlanzeni brought seven, Nkangala six and Gert Sibande brought only three members, thus shooting itself in the foot.

The Secretary then spoke to the Bohlabela members and promised them the Presidency if they voted her in as Secretary. It turned out that the only necessary arrangement to determine the steering of the Mpumalanga Schools Chess Structure rested on this single arrangement. Voting was done and the fate was sealed.

A new president was elected and the Secretary still remained the same. Everyone else left after the elections and only myself and the former president remained to prepared for the games the next day. Later that day we attended a meeting reporting on the state of readiness to the provincial officials with the former president; then on the day of the tournament, he was still very much hands on in ensuring that everything went on smoothly.

As soon as the selections were done and it was time to select the coaches, managers and officials to travel to the Cape, the incoming President and the Secretary held a meeting together deciding who  to select. It was chaos once again. Everyone wanted to go; everyone felt as if they deserved to go!

I remember in my opening remarks as Chief Arbiter for the event, I had introduced to the players and teacher, a number of highly talented out-of-School young Chess players who had accomplished so much for the province in Chess. I did that in order to assist the leaders in their task of selecting coaches.

All the players introduced are well-known in the provincial chess circles; they were Mayibongwe Khoza (MD), FM Banele Mhango, Adolph Nkosi and Lindokuhle Bhila, all of whom had represented the province in the Nationals and all had previously won medals both as individuals and as a team. All of whom understood clearly the pressure of competing in the name of your Province and could help the players both in preparation for matches and in the post-match analyses. They had the players’ respect as role models.

In my previous experience of this types of selections, there used to be order for the following reasons: there was a clear guideline as to who selects managers and who is legible for selection as a manager; who selects coaches and who is legible for selection as a coach.

The team managers were selected by the code convener which was either the President or the Secretary (or together in communication). The team manager had to be a school teacher with the most number of players in the team coming from their school, circuit, sub-district or district . As an example, the provincial team manager for the U/18 boys would have to be a male teacher who has at least three or more players of the seven in the team coming from either his school or district.

The selection of coaches as a matter of technical accuracy was the role of federations. Federations had the database of qualified and active Chess Coaches to recommend to the Schools Structure with motivation. This is why in previous years, the federations Head-Coach was responsible for the selection of Coaches and mostly picked from the coaches who had players they coached qualify for the nationals.

Mpumalanga Chess Federation is currently inactive as almost all positions are now vacant, except for the position of Interim-President. Most qualified chess coaches have since left active chess due to the toxic nature of chess politics and also for some, due to the lack of activity that resulted from the covid restrictions and lock-downs.

This indeed meant that the teachers in the Chess structure had to handle these chess matters on their own.

The Current Schools Chess President took the responsibility of Team Manager for the U/18 boys despite the fact that not even one player from Bohlabela district qualified for the provincial U/18 Chess team. They then appointed a School Teacher as a Coach for the U/18 boys.

The Under 18 Girls were given to a passionate and experienced female school teacher to manage;  She had three players from her school and district who had made the U/18 girls team. Perfect fit. Their team Coach was Mayibongwe Khoza, an experienced Chess player as indicated above.

The Under 15 Boys were first given to a teacher from Bohlabela region( even though Bohlabela has no players in the category) to manage, but he later withdrew for some yet to be disclosed reason. He was later replaced with another teacher from Bohlabela Region who has never had any experience with Chess. He is apparently very active in Volley ball and by his own admission,  knew nothing about Chess. Interestingly he was not even at the provincial selections on the day and was never introduced to the kids until we arrived in Cape Town.

The Under 15 boys were Coached by the current Interim President of Mpumalanga Chess; he had enough of his players playing in the competition, from the Under 18 girls down to the U/15 boys he was responsible for.

The Under 15 girls were given to a very active teacher from the Gert Sibande District who had enough players from both her school and district in all the categories including the one she was given charge of. The coaching responsibility for this team was given to yet another school teacher.

It appeared on the day that MD and the interim President of Mpumalanga Chess were momentarily removed from the list of coaches by the current President of Mpumalanga Schools Chess due to the fact that they were not teachers; they were replaced by teachers who had voted on the previous day and thus deserved a place in the bus!

The Secretary was swift to correct this matter as MD is one Coach she works with in her sub-district and has assisted her in running the selections. The Interim President could also not be removed as he represented the federation and was very active in assisting Nkangala district in their selections.

It became a heated discussion as some teachers were really disappointed because they could not be rewarded for their hard work of ushering in a new regime in Mpumalanga Schools Chess (half new to be fair).

The fate of the Province was set then. I know a lot of people think that the Mpumalanga Chess Team lost in Cape Town, but I believe they lost in Middelburg when the selections were made. This is like one of those Chess games which are lost in the opening stage yet the player would be convinced they made a miscalculation or mistake in the Middle-game that cost them severely. The fact is, the player went to the middle-game carrying a positional weakness from the Opening; Just like we went to Cape Town carrying our own weaknesses.

The next article will focus on the happenings in cape town which has revealed the true characters of these members who were selected to assist and take care of the kids.

It will be titled: In the Cape with Team MP and will detail how the kids were failed by all the provincial stake holders

 http://chasingraces.blogspot.com/2022/07/in-cape-with-team-mpumalanga.html