The founder of Midechess Team, Mr Olumide Akindayini has revealed his elaborate plan to stage a three-month competition among the project’s affiliate schools from May to July, with great prizes on offer for participating students, Sports247 reports.
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Akindayini, who is also the project’s head of operations, added that the forthcoming event is to be a ‘closed championship’ and will involve over 20 schools, whose best students will get opportunities of expanded chess links from his organisation.
The chess buff acknowledged that one of the ways of motivating talented children to show more interest and dedication to chess is to give them juicy rewards for their efforts, hence the need for the forthcoming competition.
He expatiated, “Midechess will be holding a Closed Chess Championship in all our 20+ partner schools in Lagos from May till July. Outstanding students will get choice prizes for their performances.
“They will get prizes, because we know that rewarding students with medals and awards inspires them to do better. So, we will also give awards to those who stand out.
“Furthermore, from the tournament, we want to spot talents who we will take to the next level. We will be awarding over 609 students from these schools with gold, silver and bronze medals for their efforts.”
Akindayini earlier told Sports247 that Midechess Team, which was founded in 2019 and is currently based at Lagos Theatre, along Igando-Isheri Road, wants to surpass their historic international outing at the World School Team Chess Championship in 2023.
The highly acclaimed FIDE Licensed School Instructor (SI), national arbiter and director of Midechess World went on to reveal recent successes the project has gained with its affiliate schools.
He added, “Our major achievements in past years include the fact that one of our partner institutions, Platform Schools, is currently regarded as the best academic centre with students who play chess in Nigeria.
“The school won the Ecobank National Schools Team Chess Championship in 2025, emerged champions in the maiden edition of the National Chess Championships in 2023, and finished as runners-up in 2024. They also won the Lagos State Chess Championship in 2024.
“Additionally, several members of Midechess Team are gold medalists at the National Youth Games. The team is currently preparing for this year’s Ecobank National Schools Team Chess Championship and the National Chess Championships.”
While affirming that the biggest target for Midechess Team this year is to win an African event and have more players cross the 2000-level rating mark, Akindayini reasoned that the project can even reach beyond the global feat they achieved three years ago.
“One of our biggest milestones was representing Nigeria at the World School Team Chess Championship in Kazakhstan in 2023, but we want to do more than that this year.
“We have many plans on our schedule and we have people who can bring results, but we need a lot of support to do it. That’s because awareness is growing and more parents are supporting their children’s talents.
“However, for chess to keep growing, we needed more corporate sponsorship and partnerships to help nurture young talents,” Akindayini submitted emphatically.
