Botswana to host CACDEC seminar
Jul 19th, 2008 by Daaim Shabazz
International Arbiter Kefilwe Miti has sent an announcement of the CACDEC seminar for coaches and trainers. The venue is Gabarone, Botswana and the announcement follows with a link to the documents. CACDEC stands for “Committee for Assistance to Chess Developing Countries.” Their statutes are listed at the FIDE site here.



Botswana Chess Federation and the African Chess Union under the Auspices of the Botswana National Sports Council and the World Chess Federation (FIDE) are glad to announce that Botswana will be hosting the first ever FIDE CACDEC Seminar for Trainers in Gaborone for the benefit of chess coaches and teachers in our region under the direct supervision of FIDE.
Until now, one had to travel all the way to FIDE Trainers Academy based in Germany or the ASEAN Chess Academy in Singapore to participate in the course and obtain FIDE Trainer titles.
Now Botswana Chess Federation brings this unique opportunity for coaches to get trained as well as certified by FIDE right in the region, thus saving a lot of expenditure.
The ASEAN Chess Academy has kindly agreed to nominate a FIDE Trainer to be assisted by a FIDE Instructor to conduct the course and the examination. The course will be conducted in English language.
Three Titles can be achieved; FIDE Instructor, National Instructor and Developmental Instructor, depending on the results of the examination and also the applicant’s stature as a player, trainer etc.
(MS-Word or PDF)
Excerpt from FIDE report on CACDEC seminar by Peter Long:
Gaborone, Botswana, Africa saw the first ever FIDE CACDEC Seminar for Trainers from 3-8 August 2008 on the initiative of the Botswana Chess Federation with support from the Afican Chess Union, FIDE and CACDEC.
So while the the seminar ultimately saw a total of 10 participants, (after a largely disappointing no show from from neigbouring countries at the very last minute), the 9 from Botswana included their President Boitumelo Keinyatse, Treasurer Lapologang Botanka and Board Member Alex Mpuisang).
But no one attending was there to make up the numbers – all were passionate about learning and all were actively involved in teaching at schools level.
In particular Ahmed Abdi Hassaan, the President of the Somali Chess Federation, and the sole “foreigner” was a vocal advocate of chess in schools and in between sessions could be seen working on his computer putting together papers and proposals.
See Report
[…] Pitlagano was granted his visa today but Mpuisang who was to be one of the arbiters for the Olympiad was denied. “Isnt this enough a reason to grant him a visa, more so that Bots Sports Council made an official application? Even officials from our Foreign Affairs ministry contacted the embassy to no avail,” wrote Boikhutswame. Ironically, Mpuisang had finished the arbiter’s course conducted by CACDEC in August. There will have to be some discussion at the General Assembly about visa arrangements since the next Olympiad will be in yet another European country. […]