By S. Siapha Mulbah
Tee Wonokay, a former national champion of the Liberian Chess Championship, is calling for more support for the growth and development of the game nationwide.
Wonokay said Chess is growing in Liberia and helping to develop the mind of many young people, which a civilized society should support in order to increase its impact.
He condemned the low budgetary allocation to the Liberian Chess Federation, which he said is working overtime to ensure that actual Liberian culture is exposed to the outside world through the game.
The Executive Director for the International Foundation on Human Rights Defense rained praises on the administration of Thomas Karyah as president of the Liberia Chess Federation for the reforms initiated at the Federation to give Liberia the global recognition it has gained in recent years.
He maintained that years back, when the game was played by some folks considered as now as veterans and retired masters, there was not much technology to have people in other parts of the world monitoring a game from Liberia.
“It is about time that we work with the leadership of this country to have more allotment to the development of Chess. Some time back, the Federation had only 20,000 in the budget, and this is not enough to keep going international with players for competition as this leadership does,” Wonokay added.
The human rights activist made the remarks yesterday, January 17, 2024, when he visited the National Chess Championship to have some interaction with players and administrators of the board.
The 2023 edition of the championship is currently taking place at the Sinkor Palace Hotel in Congo Town, with the closed session called ”The National Classical Championship”.
The competition features three different categories this year and is posed to produce the best five players in the closed session to represent the country in the upcoming 2024 World Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary
In the session under review, 20 players that participated in the qualifiers, excluding current Champion Bobby Ballah, are competing in an 11-round cage fight.
The competition yesterday hit round four in the Open and Youth Session and round three in the women’s session because of rerun of rounds in the women category.
