Chess deserves its moment too: Malawi’s team heads to Olympiad
There is something quietly poignant about watching a chess federation dress its players for an occasion more usually reserved for footballers and sprinters — the presentation of matching kit, the photographs, the sense of a nation, however modestly, sending its best out into the world.
That was the scene in Blantyre, as Azam Media (Malawi), through its Azam TV brand, handed over more than K6.8 million worth of suits, tracksuits, golf shirts and t-shirts to the 14-member Malawi Chess Team, who depart on Monday for the World Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan — the 46th edition of a tournament that will run from September 15 to 28 and draw together players from across the globe.
For a discipline that rarely commands the sponsorship attention lavished on Malawi’s more conventional sporting exports, the gesture carried a weight beyond its monetary value.
Azam Media general manager Syed Kadarsha, present at the symbolic handover alongside company director Ally Sham, framed the support as part of a broader philosophy — one that treats the cultivation of talent, wherever it is found, as worth backing.
“Mental sports such as chess deserve recognition and support because they contribute greatly to the development of young minds,” Kadarsha said, a sentiment that speaks as much to Malawi’s wider sporting culture as to chess itself — a reminder that competitive achievement need not always announce itself with a stopwatch or a scoreboard.
Chess Association of Malawi general secretary Gift Howahowa was similarly appreciative, thanking Azam for support that, for a federation operating with modest resources, will likely prove more consequential than its price tag suggests.
The travelling party is led by national champion, Fide Master Joseph Mwale, alongside Candidate Master Chiletso Chipanga, Josephy Nyambalo, George Mwale and Aaron Phiri, with Peter Jailoss serving as team captain.
On the women’s side, Malawi will be represented by Tupokiwe Msukwa, Ellen Mpinganjira, Annie Simwawa, Rachel Jailoss and Shalom Kapende, with Linda Jambo-Chaononga leading the side as ladies’ captain.
Quite what awaits them in Uzbekistan, against opposition drawn from chess’s traditional powerhouses, remains to be seen.
But for a team that has spent this week being measured for suits rather than boots, the sense of occasion — and of a country, in its own understated way, backing its own — is unmistakable.