FIDE seconds Trainer to BCF

• Trainer to boost prospects of Botswana players at Chess Olympiad 2022
• BCF says the training will be online

International Master (IM) Vishal Sareen is a FIDE Senior Trainer (FST) who has drilled several well-known Grand Masters and International Masters in chess in his two decades of coaching. He was awarded the UT Dallas Trainer Award in chess.

Sareen has also coached the Indian women’s team in multiple world and Asian tournaments and will now coach the Botswana team for the upcoming Chess Olympiad. “He is going to train both the men’s and the women’s teams but the training is going to be online,” said the Secretary General of BCF, Mokwaledi Tingwane, in a telephone interview. “We are tying up a few loose ends so he may start his work.”

Tingwane took the opportunity of the interview to express BCF’s gratitude to FIDE for the assistance ahead of the championships. “Our expectation is that Sareen’s coaching will make our team stronger,” he said. “He is well equipped in chess and knows everything about the game. “It is our hope that he will identify our player’s strengths and weaknesses and work on them accordingly to prepare the players for the championships. The idea is for him to prepare them to compete against the world’s best chess players.”

But Tingwane disclosed that BCF is yet to receive funds from the Botswana National Sports Commission to prepare for the Chess Olympiad. “A big event like the Olympiad needs the backing of our mother body, but we are yet to get our grant for 2022-2023 financial year,” he said. “In the meantime, we have been trying to source funding from potential sponsors. Our estimated budget for a two-week long physical training camp ahead of the championships is about P35 000.”

The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations from across the world compete. Organised by the FIDE, the tournament comprises open and women’s tournaments as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess. Chess Olympiad 2022 was originally scheduled to take place from 5 to 17 August 2020 but was postponed because of growing concerns around the damnable COVID-19 pandemic. It will now take place from 26 July 2022 to 8 August 2022 in the capital of the Russian Federation, Moscow.

Botswana will send 10 players to the tournament. In the men’s categories the country will be represented by IM Providence Oatlhotse, Gomolemo Rongwane, Bojosi Sabure, Oratile Kgotlane and Keletshabile Monnaatsheko. The women’s team will comprise Women Fide Master (WFM) Besa Masaiti, WFM Naledi Marape, Women Candidate Master (WCM) Natalie Katlo Banda, Ruth Otisitswe and WCM Arona Moshoboro.