Leading Pie Brand, King Pie, this weekend sponsored the Developmental Chess section as part of the South African Common Wealth Tournament, Saturday 25th June 2011, hosted at Emperors Palace. Top Development players from all regions bussed in on Friday to compete as part of the Saturday Championship.
 
“It was an obvious choice for us to make Chess a long term focus for the King Pie Brand” said Jeanne Geldenhuys COO of King Pie. “We aim to raise the profile of chess in SA and support those in disadvantaged communities; the development section in the tournament provided a perfect vehicle for us to do so”.
 
The 2011 Commonwealth and SA Open Chess Champs commenced at 10AM on Saturday, with official proceedings opened by the Deputy Minister of Sport Gert Oosthuizen. The King Pie Moves for Life development section took place thereafter on the Saturday, whilst the main tournament will continue until 3rd July 2011.
 
The Development Section was hotly contested but the end of the day saw the following results:
 
Under 10 Winner Vusumuzi Mlahleki [Male] Darmikah Pather [Female]
Under 12 WinnerThado Mapoula [Male] Mbali Skhosana [Female]
Under 14 Thami Mngandela [Male] Thelma Setati [Female]
Under 16 Quiniso Mbambo [Male], Kholofelo Kola [Female]
 
King Pie’s involvement in the tournament has been assisted and facilitated by CHESSA and Moves for Life.  Moves for Life is an organisation which unlocks latent potential through structured exposure to the game of chess. This is achieved through various structures programmes that are taken into schools.
 
Structured chess training has been proven, by studies all over the world, to be beneficial to the development of youngsters on many levels: it develops logical and strategic thinking, problem solving, numeracy, literacy, planning, creativity, and enhances many critical life skills in youngsters.
 
“It provides a great opportunity for children to develop essential life skills by participating in this competitive and mental sport” notes Moves for Life spokesperson Marisa Van Der Merwe “we are pleased to partner with King Pie in this initiative and further allow developmental players to reach competition level”.
 
The selection process for development players to qualify for the King Pie Chess Development Festival involved a system of trials and play-offs in regions all over SA. Players competed on the day in 4 age groups: u/10, u/12  u/14 and u/16. Strong focus was on players from disadvantaged communities.
 
The Development section saw players take part in a 3 day workshop from Friday 24th June to the Sunday 26th June 2011. King Pie will made sure that none of the youngsters went hungry while playing the “Game of Kings” over the weekend!
 
Prizes for the development section were awarded in different age groups, and in boys/girls categories. The winners each received a trophy with gold, silver and bronze medals to the top 3 places in each group. All players  received participation certificates, T-shirts and many more fun items to commemorate the weekend.
 
President Jacob Zuma is an avid chess player and is the patron of the Moves for life development program, which builds the understanding of maths, science and life skills through chess. This program is home-grown South African and is being supported by the Dept. Basic Education, business- and community leaders, private sponsors, FIDE (the world chess federation), Chess SA, SRSA and many more. Moves for life is active in urban-, rural and township communities and has programs in all 9 provinces of SA. This program uses fun and playful ways to produce life changing impact in young lives … let us call it “the unfair advantage”!