Leemisa Thuseho
TWO-time chess Olympian Naleli McPherson has opened a You Tube channel that is meant to offer chess lessons to players.
A first in Lesotho, the channel is dubbed Lesotho Knight Vision and is meant to provide convenience to players who can visit it at their own time without any constraints.
McPherson said she decided to open the channel to empower players.
“The platform will give everyone chance to learn from some of the best coaches and players from Lesotho and even from around the world,” McPherson said.
“People will access the platform for free because it is open for all. Every week there will be a video lesson posted covering lessons for beginners, intermediate and advanced of the chess players. The hope is that the lessons will help develop chess players.”
McPherson hopes the platform will increase the number of players in Lesotho particularly women and also increase the number of local title holders.
So far, Lesotho has only four title holders namely; Maboloko Leboela — Women Candidate Master (WCM), Lieketseng Ngatane — Women FIDE Master (WFM), Tokelo Klaas — Candidate Master (CM) and Joang Molapo — CM.
She also wants to use the platform to empower players, among them those from remote areas, who have access to neither quality coaches nor chess clubs.
“For now, I am not incurring any financial costs but I know that some people may want to be paid for their services with time. So far, all I must worry about is data to upload the videos.
“I will be working with coach Mphetole Mona and one of the Lesotho’s top players, Sechaba Khalema,” McPherson said.
Apart from the You Tube platform, McPherson organises online chess tournaments for local players who cannot meet because of Covid-19 restrictions.
