The Russian Grand master, made the pronouncement at a crowded press conference to round up his three-day working visit of Kasparov Chess Foundation (KCF), to the country. He said that Nigeria with its huge population and it pivot role on the continent, has the capability to produce great chess players that will make a mark in the brain game.
"My visit to Nigeria has yielded positive results in many ways. I had a fruitful discussions with the top hierarchy in the National Sports Commission (NSC), and they were delighted with what my Foundation plans to do for the country. At the Ministry of Education, they were overwhelmed with the radical ideas of using their platform (Schools) to help lift the mental ability of the children at no cost.
"We have to perform to their expectation and I see this as a huge challenge considering the fact that I met with many top business executives in your country who have promised to support the project," he explained.
He said with all the parties involved fulfilling its side of obligation, the project will take off by September this year and the target will be children between the ages of five to nine years. He explained that at this age bracket have potentials to assimilate more and it is even better for kids in the rural areas but the age limit will not be restricted to that bracket.
“Our target is between ages of five to nine because they have the potentials to assimilate the basic principles and the effects in decision making mechanism begins to go flat from age 10. It will even better if we pick kids from the rural areas who are lacking in basic education but are able to make up with the basic principle of chess as a basis to a ‘Man of their World’ in the future. The educational system here will determine how it will work here,” he pointed out.
The Kasparov Chess Foundation Africa has been working extremely hard since its launch in March 2012 to raise funds for the broader development of chess across the African continent and have made considerable progress in this regard over the last few months.
Kasparov who became the youngest world chess champion in history in 1985 and remained the top-ranked player in the world for more than 20 years noted that Nigeria can challenge the rest of the world if we develop our potentials.
Japan, India and China were able to rise to the American challenge because they were able to exploit their respective human resources. "It is all about human factor because when you have the talents you must create the environment for it to work at optimum capacity.
"The Philippines is just about half the population of Nigeria but have 15 grand masters as against Nigeria with none and same with Egypt and Morocco with notable Grand Masters too. However, the fundamental problem of Africa is that they are too isolated from the main chess arena aside Egypt and Morocco that have exploited their proximity to Europe'" he explained.
He explained that with the coming of his foundation to Nigeria, it will afford it the opportunity to excel at the World chess Olympiad.
On whether his political ambition will truncate the project, the chess genius said they are projects working at a parallel line. “ Absolutely not possible because chess is my life, it gave me fame and its time for me to give back to the world what I have learnt over the years. This why it’s a Foundation,” he remarked.
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