To honour outstanding achievements and reflect on the sport’s remarkable growth and transformation, the Namibia Chess Federation (NCF) recently hosted the 2025 Annual Chess Award Ceremony in Windhoek. A defining highlight of the evening was the official recognition of chess as a development sport in Namibia. This milestone affirms the sport’s growing impact and the dedication of the chess community over the past three decades. NCF President Berdian Beukes paid tribute to the pioneers whose commitment laid the foundation for today’s successes.
In a historic achievement, chess was selected as one of only 13 sport codes for Namibia’s prestigious Podium Performance Programme (PPP) and, notably, the only non-Olympic sport to be included. Ten chess athletes were nominated for high-performance support, reflecting the sustained excellence of Namibian players, improved federation governance, and growing national respect for the sport.
The ceremony honoured national champions and top performers, including:
Heskiel Ndahangwapo: Three-time National Champion and Namibia’s representative at the 2025 FIDE World Cup in Goa, India.
Jamie-Nicole Beukes: 2025 National Women’s Champion and the country’s highest-rated female player.
Sanders Oberholzer: Senior (50+) National Champion for the third consecutive year.
Dante Beukes: Namibia’s highest-rated player, maintaining a FIDE rating above 2200 since 2018.
Frederik Cronje: Gold Medallist and African Champion (Under-9) at the 2025 African Schools Individual Chess Championships in Nairobi, ending Namibia’s six-year gold drought at the event.
The 2025 season highlights
This year, the Bank Windhoek Chess League featured over 39 teams competing across junior, first, and premier divisions. Supreme 3D Grand Monsters clinched the Premier League title. At
the same time, the Bank Windhoek Grand Prix Tournament Series continued to foster grassroots participation and elevate standards nationwide. Lazarus Shatipamba, Klaudia Kamina, and Fritz Hangue were among the Grand Prix champions recognised for their exceptional performances.
Beukes extended special appreciation to all NFC stakeholders. He added that Bank Windhoek’s ongoing support remains instrumental in empowering young and senior players and ensuring the sport’s continued growth. The NCF announced plans to align its awards with the Namibia Annual Sports Awards (NASA) framework, further integrating chess into the national sporting landscape.
Audrey Mostert, Manager of Corporate Social Responsibility and Sponsorships at Bank Windhoek, highlighted chess as a universal language that transcends borders and generations. “Chess is about skill, foresight, and decision-making. Each piece on the board works harmoniously, teaching us to anticipate tactics and counterattack them,” she said.
Bank Windhoek’s longstanding support for chess was emphasised, including initiatives such as the National Junior Chess Championships, the distribution of Smiley Chess sets to over 100 schools, and the Mathematics Teachers Initiative, in partnership with the Ministry of Education to enhance numerical skills among Namibian youth.
Recent years have seen Bank Windhoek sponsor the National Chess League and the Kehat Beukes Legacy Tournament. Between 2023 and 2025, the Bank provided a record N$1.5 million in sponsorship, the largest in the country’s chess history, to fund programmes, tournaments, and educational initiatives nationwide.
Mostert concluded that Bank Windhoek remains dedicated to empowering Namibian youth and supporting the Namibia Chess Federation’s mission to bring chess to every corner of the country.
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