HILARY HOSIA
The establishment of the first ever Marshall Islands Chess Federation may take place within the year, thanks largely to the influence of world-renowned Chess Grandmaster Nigel Short who visited Majuro last week.
Nigel is confident the Marshall Islands Chess Federation will be fully chartered by September this year, if the local actors do their due diligence.
“It is vital for the local federation to be set up by September,” Nigel told the Journal over the weekend. “That way, the International Chess Federation may table the inclusion of the new federation in the upcoming general assembly at the end of the year.”
The endgame is to have the first Marshallese team to participate in the next chess Olympiad set to take place in Uzbekistan next year, according to Nigel.
In his short visit last week, Nigel was able to meet and hold awareness on chess with Majuro Cooperative School, the University of South Pacific and the College of Marshall Islands.
Nigel also played in an exhibition match with 20 local players simultaneously at CMI, of which he was the sole victor. Among the players in the exhibition match was Australian Ambassador Paul Wilson and local celebrity Fred Pedro. The youngest player in the match was 11-year-old Ryan Marshall Paige, a six grader from Coop. Of the 20 players, the last two-men standing was CMI Instructor Oscar Ragus and Seventh Day Adventist Teacher Aidan Jung.
Nigel will be hosting similar outreach in Kiribati. Nigel said Kiribati almost had a federation but they missed out due to not having all their technical documents required.
Nigel started playing chess at the age of five. He gained international fame when he beat Vicktor Korchnoi who was ranked second in the world and Nigel was only 10 at the time and in a simultaneous match. The chess prodigy then attained grandmaster status when he was 17, the youngest on record at the time in 1984. He is currently the International Development Director for the International Chess Federation.