Mphetole Mona is a part-time lecturer at Sky Blue Academy, delivering Financial Accounting and Financial Reporting papers. He has a passion for teaching in general, be it in a formal sitting or an informal one. Academic or chess. He believes he can, to some extent, also use chess to promote education.
Having recently been awarded Trainers title of National Instructor by the World Chess Federation, after a Trainers seminar and test, he feels an urge to quickly give back and further promote education through the sport.
“I have learned so much from chess. The art of sacrifice, above all; planning and prophylaxis. Prophylactic thinking is essential in almost all parts of our life. In chess what prophylactic thinking means is that you try to anticipate your opponent’s future plans based on their position, and play moves that make their plans doomed even before they carry them out.” Mphetole said.
He holds the following achievements and titles to his name:
2018 Pilot Chess League Champion with Sparta Chess Club
National Instructor Title awarded in 2018
2017 BMI Lesotho Open Champion
2017 LUCSA Games Silver Medalist Representing Centre for Accounting Studies
Developing a passion for coaching chess
Mphetole was a Chess Captain for the Centre for Accounting Studies Club in the academic year 2016/17. “I was not very active with the club because of the tight school schedule for everybody in the Club, but I was still able to teach chess to some new members of the club.”
He started lecturing at Sky Blue Academy around August 2017 and after a few months he became consciously aware that he has a passion for teaching.
The significance of targeting the young minds
He aims to coach young children who will be strong enough to be National team representatives in about 5 years. “Age factor is really important. If we are ever to have a good team we should strive to have a solid base.” He said.
“For Lesotho to begin performing well in various activities we ought to start investing in making a solid base right now in order to have the success we need in the next 10 to 15 years. Instead of looking for overnight success, we should be focusing on investment at grassroots levels.” Mphetole said. He added that this goes for all sports; football, chess etc.
“The top Nations in Chess include Russia, China and USA. What’s common about them is that they have a solid base already. There are kids undergoing training to take on the world when the current National team players reach their prime.” He asserted.
“This applies to football as well. All nations with great football teams have great academies nurturing talent from a young age. Look at countries like Brazil; Spain; France and Germany, their U17; U20; U21; U23 squads are already dominant. And it’s logical that when some senior national team players retire, they already have hot talent at their disposal.” He stated.
Approach and plan on coaching chess
Mphetole is currently working alone, but if anything comes that would have him working with others he would still consider it. “There is a saying that you should not own a student for a lifetime! I anticipate that some of the students will outgrow me at some point in time and someone else will take over. Or they will be independent, and I won’t have to teach them anymore but still be available for consultations.”
“My target in the long term is training chess players more preferably from around 6 years old. They have a potential to grasp more and form a long term memory. They also have fewer commitments at that age and will therefore be able to focus more.”
He won’t be coaching on a full-time basis as he has several other commitments. “It will mostly be during the long holidays like summer (Christmas) and winter holidays, beginning this December. Currently I’m focused on helping Sky Blue Academy establish their Chess Club.” Sky Blue Accademy is a Silver Accredited Tertiary Institution offering professional Accounting courses.
Interested individuals who wish to learn about chess coaching services can reach Mphetole using the following contacts:
Email address: [email protected]
Phone number: (+266) 56666774