Gombe U-15 Chess Competition: The Moses Ishaya’s Story of Resilience
By Tiko Jonathan
This story, is a story about hard work.
This story is about resilience, this story is about passion and a reward for hard work.
it all started July last year during the selection tournament for the national youth games, my student Sony Elisha (The Arbiter) in the photo finished as the runner up of the tournament, thereby gaining qualification to represent Gombe.
After the tournament, on our way back
home, about 10 other kids approached me asking me to teach them chess so that they can be able to improve themselves and win subsequent tournaments.
Then, I told them that I’m always available and opened to teach them. We scheduled the time and venue where we can all converge and train together.
The first week(s) was encouraging, a good number of them showed up, but after some while, Only Moses Ishaya (Tata) and Yusuf Bala, continued coming. I tried to find out what was hindering the other kids from coming, and I found out that it was a lack of commitment, passion and hard work.
I did all I could to re-ignite the passion in these kids but all my efforts were in vain.
Unfortunately for Yusuf, he joined a boarding school and was unable to continue with the classes.
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Moses continued the classes anyway, he kept me on my toes even when I felt lazy. Some times even when I’m busy doing other things, he would wait for me till I’m done. We spent a lot of excruciating hours together but he kept being consistent.
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2 days ago at the annual qualifying event, Moses finished the tournament as joint runner up with 5/6 points and qualified for the upcoming National Youth Sports Festival. This is the reward for his hard work, persistence and passion.
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He has also gotten a gift of a new chess set courtesy of “The gift of chess foundation”.
Moses Ishaya is a very talented young boy who has a lot in store and we look forward to a podium performance at Ilorin.
