By S. Siapha Mulbah
Deputy Minister for Youth and Sports, Andy Quamie, has expressed deep concerns over stakeholders from the Liberia Chess Federation(LCF) actions to boycott the institution General Assembly after a series of complaints over wrongdoings in leadership.
Showing up at the Federation’s headquarter last Saturday May 17, 2025 as national government’s delegate at the institution planned 8th general assembly was one of Minister Quamie’s disappointing moments as he had to wait more than three hours to seek stakeholders gathering to discuss the growth and challenges of the sport.
Despite the long wait, he ended voicing out a concern for the future of the game because majority of the stakeholders including top performers and champions of the recent national chess championship failed to converge for the annual event.
He termed it as an unfortunate situation that the delegates of the federation will stay away from their official duty for unknown reasons preventing the call of action to review and make policies that should ascribe to governance.
The minister explained that the action of both members of congress and executive show signals that there are still many situations of leadership and governance issues in the federation that need to be worked on in the soonest possible time.
He believes that chess players and administrators should be leading outstanding decision making in terms of grievances because that game presents lively situations that require mind development and strong intelligence.
“Unfortunately, the Chess Federation supposed to be bringing people together of high IQ. This is not the first time for you to be having such a crisis. For years we have been trying to see how we can solve it, but it is what it is. Chess federation should be leading the way because it is a sport that is played with people of high intellects and high intelligence,” he averred.
He informed those concerned with chess leadership to move in the right way possible to resolve their leadership crisis and stop creating problems in the mind of the growing population and young people interested in taking their lives to another level with the board game.
According to him, gatherings like the General Assembly and Congresses along with other tournaments organized by the federation are perfect occasions to voice out issues of concerns so that the body has an appreciative understanding to take action.
He cautioned the leadership to not give up with the issues in the federation, promising to get involved in more ways to have engaging dialogues for a common ground between rival groups.
At the failed assembly, LCF president Thomas Karyah also expressed disappointment in the majority stakeholders for professing love for the game in social media chat rooms and boycotting key events at the federation.
According to him, it has been complained by many that he (Karyah) is unilaterally running the federation and taking personal decisions but when it comes to making time available for voluntary services, those criticizing him stay away masquerading in excuses.
Interestingly, while many delegates were absent from the assembly, social media and other groupings were overwhelmed with a barrage of mixed views on why many constituting a quorum failed to attend.
After the event, the federation’s immediate past President Williams Thompson, phoned in an interview with reporters also blaming his successor Thomas Karyah for rescheduling the event to reportedly inconvenience others from attending.
According to Thompson, the change in date from May 10 to May 17 did not meet the full consensus of the federation leading body. He alleged that after the unilateral change in date, delegates were not timely informed to adjust in schedule.
Contrary to Thompson’s assertions, LCF Secretary General Wilfred Smith informed the Inquirer Newspaper that all delegates were duly communicated to with the itinerary of the Assembly for which more than 50 names were submitted by the clubs.
According to further reports, the former LCF president was not a delegate to the assembly under review to have been informed of the events activities for which he reported his assumption based on disagreement with the current leadership.
