As part of grassroots development activities among the young ones, Oyo State Chess Association organised the maiden edition of the Schools Chess Championship which featured 26 schools and over 220 students contesting Under 7, 9, 11, 13, 15 and 17 categories at Lekan Salami Sports Complex, Adamasingba, Ibadan.
In the U-7 categories, Damisire Ogunbayo and Awesome Afunto claimed the winner for female and male respectively while Aisha Nurudeen and Adejuwon Eyinimofe won U-9 prizes.
Adegbayi Winner and Ehigiator Gaius were champions of U-11 while Bello Bashirat and Sambo Samson emerged the champions of U-13.
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Ayomiposi Adeyemi and Sambo Joseph won the female and male categories for U-15 while Oladele Ireayomi and Soliu Hassan won female and male categories for U-17.
Newspring Group of Schools led the medals table with two gold, three silver and five bronze medals totaling 10 medals and emerged champions of the competition.
Dayspring Group of Schools came second with two gold, three silver and one bronze medals while St.Brigids School came third with two gold medals.
Speaking after the championship, the Chairman, Oyo State Chess Association, Mr. Iredele Ogunbayo said it is necessary for them to engage the teenagers in the game of Chess as it attracts many opportunities both within and outside the country.
Ogunbayo said Chess stars can be discovered through this initiative as the association is ready to invest more in discovering talents for the state and Nigeria as a whole.
According to him, “Chess means a lot and is all about mind development and not just a spor, for any endeavour, it is always good to start early and that is the main objective of this competition, to catch them young and that is why we are having Nursery and Primary school students as well as secondary school students playing in all the categories, U-7, U-9, U-11, U-13, U-15 and U-17.”
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This is the maiden edition, it has never happened in the history of the state and we are very excited and I believe the next edition will be bigger and better.
“Chess has always been a sport that brings the highest medals to Oyo State at the National Sports Festival over the past decade but the aim of the tournament is not just to discover talents but overall development.”
“There are so many benefits of Chess, and we want the young ones to tap from these benefits such as critical thinking, logical reasoning, mental development, concentration, sportsmanship and many more. We want these children to grab all these benefits at an early age and for those who wish to go ahead to become professionals, sky is their limit.
There are scholarship opportunities both within and outside the country for sportsmen, Chess inclusive,” he noted.