All is now in place for the staging of the Zimbabwe Chess federation (ZCF) elective annual general meeting which is scheduled to take place on October 18, at Joina City in Harare.
African Chess Confederation (ACC) president Tshepiso Lopang together with Zone 4.5 president Susan Namangale, are set to be guests at the Indaba.
The congress comes at a time when Zimbabwe chess is on an upward trend following the impressive showing at the 45th Chess Olympiad in Hungary last month where Zimbabwe finished 56th in the open category and second in Africa thereby qualifying for the Chess World Cup.
Sponsors have also been flocking to support the game as it has been spreading to every corner of the country.
ZCF secretary general Todd Mapingire gave an update on the preparation for the AGM and the elections.
“All is now set for the AGM and the election of the new executive of the ZCF. In terms of the preparations we have done what needs to be done in terms of the (0:20) constitution, giving a notice within 14 days. We actually gave one on the 20th, which (0:27) is almost like 29 days before both the AGM and the Election Day,” Mapingire said.
He added that as a federation, one of the highlights on the agenda will be availing audited financial statements, which will play a key role in luring sponsorship for them.
“One of the biggest achievements is that the federation in the past 10 to 20 years has been failing to produce its financial results. We are going to bring in those financials and those from years gone by because we have managed to ensure we are audited for all those years up to the current year which is 2023.
“The incumbent president has announced that he is retiring from chess. There is always this culture of people always hanging on forever but even after he has done a lot of good for chess he has decided to call it quits and support from outside,” he said.
Outgoing ZCF president, Mucha Mkanganwi expressed delight with the regional and continental bosses gracing the event.
“Having both the ACC and 4.5 Zone presidents for our AGM is a historic event and a very significant for us as a federation and it shows that we have good relations with the custodians of the sport on the continent
“It is the first time that we will be having these two presidents in the country at the same time.
“Hence we’re really excited by it, because it actually opens up only doors for us in Zimbabwe, but also within the zone and the ACC we get to exchange notes on how others are doing it in the zone and in Africa,” said Mkanganwi.