Chess turned passionate YouTube pursuit: The Koketso Mathebe story
- Tshepiso Mametela
Following in the footsteps of the Soviet Chess Champion and engineer Mikhail Botvinnik, a Wits University Mining Engineering student has embarked on teaching the popular strategic board game of chess to the masses.
Koketso Mathebe attempts to have his passion rub off on the curious novices using his YouTube channel, Unclekay Academy, a platform which combined with the intuitive and competitive two-player recreational game, lends itself to the genius of Botvinnik — who also as a computer scientist and teacher pioneered computer chess.
The channel was launched in August last year with the aim of shining a light on chess. According to Mathebe, the game of strategy is still considered by many as a niche undertaking. However, the chess player says his channel will serve as a crucial reference point to address this stereotype and other related myths.
Taking time out from his busy schedule to chat about his love affair with the game, the future mining engineer unpacked the importance of why people ought to learn it, and the basic strategies they can adopt on their way to becoming whizzes or future chess champions.
In his own analysis of the relationship between engineering and chess, the third-year student said both are founded on the ability to think critically. He also said each discipline calls on unique problem-solving skills in addition to requiring specific methods in order to achieve a solution.
Koketso Mathebe playing a game of chess
WS: Why the objective to create a YouTube channel aimed at teaching people chess?
KM: My love of chess and passion for teaching. So, incorporated, that is to ‘teach chess’. To inspire and to bring awareness of chess and that if I can do it, the next person can do it too.
After I started the YouTube channel, people close to me were inspired; they started to learn. With my love for teaching and helping people, YouTube was a platform to reach more people as far as the digital world goes.
WS: When did your love affair with the recreational board game sprout? Describe this journey.
KM: It has been hard for someone [from a] disadvantaged background like myself. Despite having played at provincial level in school, I couldn't play private tournaments for SAJCC (South African Junior Chess Championships) because I did not have the money to play at trials.
So, one of my initiatives is to raise awareness and for kids like me to be given a chance, not to be defined by money, but by their strengths. In terms of my journey, I was discovered in the street by an acquaintance who knew me as that smart boy eKasi (township).
I was 13-years-old and in grade 8 at the time. My then-acquaintance, Calvin, introduced me to my eventual tutor, Tosh, with whom he’d been playing chess. The latter asked me questions to test my Intellect; my responses impressed him ... and this spurred him on to believe I was fit for chess and I was invited to [a local] academy the next day.
I went there and he taught me the game and that's when the love for it started. I’ve achieved a few things since and this is all thanks to ‘The Law of Attraction’.
WS: A popular chess myth is that ‘it takes a genius to win at the game’. This can’t possibly be true, can it?
I don’t believe in magic people — we are born not knowing and everything we know today we learned. To account for the winner in chess, it is because they [challenger] might know a trick that the opponent doesn’t.
In other words, they may have learned something that the other may have not. Chess is a game of error. If it wasn’t for error there would not be a winner.
The one that wins is the one that makes less errors and is be able to punish that of the opponent. Risk management is important and one can learn this to reduce error, which comes with practice.
WS: For the novice, what is the most important piece and why? How can it be used to gain an advantage in real game situations?
KM: One would say it’s the queen and this is because it has more points and can move like any other piece. The most undermined piece is the pawn and can only move a few steps.
What we can learn here is we might be seen as weak or disadvantaged but if we stand together and are connected, we can conquer. The other thing about a pawn is that once it reaches the last rank, it can crown (become a queen or knight) thus becoming [a more powerful piece].
WS: Can these people aspire to one day become the Bobby Fischers and Magnus Carlsens of the world?
KM: Definitely! People who learn chess want to become something bigger, i.e., they want to become grandmasters. The moment they’ve learned chess they, of course, begin to have such aspirations. Chess is interesting and you almost always find the need to become better at your game.
WS: On your own lessons playing the two-player board game, what has it taught you?
KM: Chess has taught me patience and to not allow emotions to take over but to always think. Sometimes in a game against an opponent, I trigger their emotions to see how balanced they are and if they can remain calm.
Chess has taught me not to overreact emotionally in certain situations and to always stay calm. It has taught many things, including, studying people and how people think, which is very crucial in the game.
Observing an individual’s character during a game has taught me to preempt the style of play to anticipate, among other things.