The Barbados Chess Federation (BCF)  recently received a donation of equipment from the Gift of Chess, a nonprofit organization based in New York, whose goal is to transform lives through the universal language of chess.

This organization distributes chess sets and chess training technology across four key social initiatives, those being educational, prison, global, and elderly outreach. It is active with chess federations, educational institutions, and non-governmental agencies especially in developing countries.

The Bajan leg of its global outreach of the body was represented by Marissa Broomes, a teacher based in New York, but born in Barbados. She made the equipment donation at her primary school alma matter Lawrence T Gay, where she gifted the equipment to former Barbados Chess federation president Rohan Waithe.

In their educational initiative, the Gift of chess has given chess sets to many schools all over the world from each New York city elementary school to schools in Lagos, Nigeria. They also donate a chess training application.  With the donation, its hoped that a club would spring up at the institution and that students would learn to apply some of the skills that they would pick up when they learn to play the game such critical thinking, planning, problem solving and time management.

With this donation it would be hoped that the BCF would seek initiatives especially at the community level to use this equipment.

The chess federation calendar ticks over this weekend with the hosting of the Margaret Prince Memorial rapid online event. This is a female only event for Caribbean territories in honor of Barbados’s first female national champion Margaret Prince.