1,000 Chess Sets Reach Zimbabwe

I love, live, & breath this beautiful game, it is in my nervous system 24/7. My name is Walter Mukundwa a chess coach in my country & my recent appointment as ambassador for The Gift of Chess to Zimbabwe. Chess can be a bridging gap, eliminating ignorance & catapult dreams of a generation.

My background is as humble as they come, 80 kilometers from the capital city Harare is a rural area called Murehwa, here the sport for all is either football or athletics period. Time immemorial games like chess where largely considered to be elitist & a preserve for the monied.

At a tender age of 10 I opted to deviate from the norm & chose a sport whose benefits are proving bountyful for me. An uncle of mine who had been privilledged enough to master the sport from a German Missionary teacher at the local mission school, took me through the ropes .

Bit by bit l learn’t it slowly grasping the do’s and don’ts until it sank in me literally surpassing everything under the sun in my life. Driven by my insatiable appetite for the game I would starve myself & save my meagre pocket money which I used to buy a small chessboard.

At primary school I realized that my challenges where similar to those of multitudes who despite their curious appetite for the game fail to afford chess boards & so talent much in abundance here suffers.

It is my vision that I spread the tentacles of the chess to all corners of Zimbabwe. I happen to be a testimony of how chess can transform one’s life.

Its a realistic dream I wish to share with my countryman & women.

https://twitter.com/wkmukundwa