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By Amaechi Agbo

Benin City, the Edo State capital, was the cynosure of eyes over the weekend as participants from across the country and beyond besieged the ancient city for the third edition of the International Day of Sports for Development and Peace, (IDSDP) Invitational Chess Tournament held on Saturday, 6th April 2024.

Organized by the Life and Chess Club and powered by Community Sports and Educational Development, (CSED) Initiative, the event was held at the premises of Edo Innovates, along ICE Road in Benin City. Despite the heavy rain, the participants were not deterred, as they did not want to miss this date in the chess calendar of Edo State.

The event was attended by chess players from far and near, with no age limit and or high ranking on the chess board. The event which lasted for about six hours, was a 7 rounds rapid FIDE rated tournament. During and after the tournament, participants were provided with light refreshment by the tournament organisers.

At the end of the tournament, participants of the event praised the efforts of the tournament Coordinator, Princess Omoyemwen Adeyinka-Afolabi, CSED Initiative and other sponsors of the event, for their unrelenting effort at developing chess at the grassroots level.

They also expressed their desire to continue to make good efforts in improving themselves in the game of chess, as well as pledged to take part in future IDSDP Chess Invitation Tournaments. The Management of Life and Chess Club and CSED Initiative, are currently working out modalities of how to introduce chess to some selected secondary school in Benin City, as well as in other interested secondary schools in the three senatorial districts of Edo State.

They hope to achieve this goal through a Chess4schools community outreach programme, which will involve teaching the students other basic soft skills and emotional intelligence skills.