RE: BREAKING THE SILENCE: RESPONSE TO OGUNTUASE

Mr Ayo Oguntuase,

Thank you for your response to the e-mail I sent about a month ago concerning Chess in Nigeria. My believe is you must have just seen the mail, considering how long it took for you to respond.

It is a good idea you brought up the issues of chess equipments and some help as regards chess in Ekiti state. If you really went through my post ,you would note that it is not just chess on the state level that I am talking about. In fact I never mentioned that because I was talking of more important things that needs to be done before chess on the state level can make sense.

I can tell you there are a number of states that have all this equipments and things you talked about, that are making a number of people good players, but what is the point of making all this good players without having events for them to play in or having fide rating or playing in events outside the country?

Like I said earlier, Nigeria Chess Federation must be functioning well before chess at the state level can come into the fore front, or being noticed. Without Nigeria Chess Federation doing thier duties, all the Chess you know (no matter how good you are) will all remain local. That means No fide ratings, No Olympiads, No African junior champion, No All african games, None of the Fide rated events, so where does that bring you to?

There are some states that have teams they can actually send overseas for chess events ,they have all the equipments and stuffs like that, but what will be the point of participating at such events, knowing fully well that Fide does not reckon with you.

The issue I was trying to address is not just the state of chess at state level, I was looking at a bigger picture which I think everyone should ,to enable everyone,either states or individuals to be able to participate in events worldwide, and knowing that the games are rated and people aspiring to be titled players or having high ratings can have something to play for.

Oladapo Adu