8-year-old Ghanaian chess sensation, Dave Chief Quansah Acheampong along with his father David and his little brother Jedidiah, visited the offices of multi-divisional company Reiss & Co yesterday 16th June 2021.
Dave whose star has been on the rise ever since becoming the first-ever Ghanaian to claim victory in the U-9 category of the 2020 African Schools Individual Chess Championship back in January 2021 was invited to have a chat with the Managing Director (MD) of Reiss & Co, Jeffery Sowa, about how best the company could help develop the sport of chess at school level.
“You can make it [chess] part of the curriculum in the school so that they [kids] always play,” the 8-year-old Dave suggested to the Reiss & Co MD “It [chess] helps you calculate more, focus, and think differently” he continued speaking about the benefits the game would have if implemented at school level.
Aside from claiming victory at the 2020 African Schools Individual Chess Championship, Dave a student of the Jack and Jill School in Accra also claimed victory in the U-10 and finished in second place in the U-18 categories of the 2021 National Youth Chess Championship held back in May 2021.
Mr Sowa seems extremely interested in pushing the sport at the primary and secondary school level, tasking Dave’s father who also runs the Mentors Chess Academy, David Acheampong, to bring this to life.
“It’s different, that’s what we want to be at Reiss & Co, we want to be different we deal with specialized stuff. So we want to be known in this [chess] space as well.” Mr Sowa said, “So put together something, maybe not really for this year but in subsequent years and then we can take a look and then progress from that point, but as I said I am keen on schools, primary especially.”
Reiss & Co recently renewed their commitment to support the sport of chess and the Ghana Chess Association‘s (GCA) flagship competition ‘The President’s Cup’ which features chess heads from across the continent and beyond with Reiss & Co MD Jeffery Sowa stressing the company’s commitment to the sport.
“We want to hold onto that [chess] and develop it so that again we are known for bringing that growth in the game. So for now we are sticking to chess and if any other game comes up, not that I can really think of any. So it’s going to be for chess alone.”
Dave has confirmed he will participate in this year’s edition of the President Cup which is set to take place in July 2021 and Mr Sowa has promised the young star a special prize should he finish in the top 3 places of the U-18 category of the competition.
