By Iva Wharton
In an effort to sharpen their skills, three players from the Orealla community are part of 10-day training programme conducted by Coach Roy Sharma at the National Library.
The three are: ten-year-old Nellisha Johnson, nine-year-old Waveney Johnson and six-year-old Daniel Alexander. Nellisha Johnson is the winner of the Orealla Chess tournament for which she won the Amerindian Affairs trophy.
Sharma in an interview with Stabroek News Sport Monday said that since the programme started it has grown.
“The aim of the workshop was to get the children from Orealla exposure but it has grown into something bigger. Because people are coming in and seeing them play, they have asked to have their children included,” he told Stabroek Sport.
According to Sharma, he is not going to turn any of the newcomers down. Asked whether he has considered extending the workshop, Sharma said the Librarian had asked him to have a regular programme at the library.
“But I do not have the time, I had extended that offer to them about two years back but they approached me this year but I was out of town. I came here and I got them sets, so the library has sets.”
Sharma said that once the people are available for the programme he will put systems in place to ensure that chess is taught at the library and would even consider starting a chess club at the library.
“The whole idea is to get a many people interested in chess especially young people using that as a base to form a nucleus of players,” he said.
According to Sharma, the programme is already a success. He also said that in a few days he will be working with a few of his old students like Saeed Ali and his younger sister Sherifa in preparation for upcoming tournaments. The two were also at the Library assisting Sharma with his new batch of students.
