Sportlight Series (05): Olabode Sofoluwe

Dusk is setting, and hearty laughs ring through the chess club as music blares in the background. Soliu Hassan is prancing around, happy as a kite, four fading words emblazoned across the back of his white jacket: Blazing Kings Games Club. He’s delighted, and he should be, he’s just tied for first in a blitz tournament, along with fellow BKGC prospect, Sambo Joseph. Eighteen and sixteen years old, the pair have dominated a field that included members of the University of Ibadan Chess Team, and their gleeful coach, Olabode Sofoluwe. He’s not won the tournament, falling short by half a point, but you couldn’t tell looking at him. His boys won it, and that’s all that really matters.

Blazing Kings Games Club has emerged as a major player in the Ibadan chess scene in recent years, with her popular monthly rapid tournaments, and the young talents she churns out every year. And it’s all thanks to the man at the helm, Olabode Sofoluwe. He is the lead director of Blazing Kings Games Club, an NGO aimed at promoting games like chess and scrabble at the grassroots, the Oyo State chess coach, and a Master’s in Public Health student at the University of Ibadan. In September, 2024, he received a special recognition award from The John Fawole Chess Awards for his “invaluable contributions to the growth and development of chess in Nigeria, inspiring future generations”. Combining his roles with his education is challenging but he’s used to it, having worked with vulnerable street children a long time before starting his MPH. 

Bode got into chess in 2012, while he was an undergraduate at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, playing with his friends in Spartan hostels. Prior to then, he’d been introduced to chess while in secondary school by a relative visiting from Europe but didn’t take the sport seriously until much later. While serving in the National Youth Service Corps, his interest was ramped up further after meeting an opponent he just couldn’t defeat. He took it upon himself to improve during his service year, and began to visit Adamasingba Stadium, Ibadan, where he met members of the state’s chess team and the then chess coach, Seye Lasinu. Around the same time, he also started to visit the University of Ibadan to meet friends, and was introduced to some chess players, including Emeka Madueke, Kehinde Olajide, and Dr Christopher Osunbote. After his youth service, he stayed back in Ibadan and began working at a home for vulnerable children, teaching them games and sports as part of their extracurriculars, while still visiting the stadium to train and improve his chess. In 2017, two of his students at the home for vulnerable children, former so-called street kids, qualified to represent Oyo State after excelling at trials. For this achievement, Mr Sofoluwe was recognised within the Oyo State chess scene, and appointed as the Oyo State junior chess coach.

On the origins of Blazing Kings Games Club, Bode is just as reflective. He’d had dreams of a games facility while in university but at the time didn’t consider chess alone as he was passionate about several games. Table tennis and snooker were options at the time, but upon starting work with the Oyo State Sports Council, he now had a task to fulfil: building up more chess players from the grassroots. He took it upon himself to build an academy along with his friends from UI who had been coming to his place to play chess. In October, 2019, that dream was finally a reality, and Madueke, Olajide and Osunbote joined the board of trustees of Sofoluwe’s Blazing Kings Games Club. There have been great strides for Blazing Kings Games Club this year, with her prodigies competing at the National Schools Team Chess Championship held at Lagos in May, representing Dayspring Schools. Their chemistry having played together for many years was on full display and they ran away with it. Placing first in the secondary schools section, they qualified to represent Nigeria at the World Schools Team Chess Championship, Uzbekistan held in August of this year. An expectedly difficult event, this much-needed exposure left the boys and their coach with an even greater appetite for success, and they are set to ramp up their training plans in the coming months.

Nigerian chess is teething, and Olabode Sofoluwe shares that viewpoint. He is full of praise for the Nigerian Chess Federation currently led by the President, DIG (Rtd.) Sani Mohammed, and Vice-President, Prince Adewole Adeyinka, as well as for the Oyo State Chess Association Chairman, Mr Iredele Ogunbayo. There have been more investors in chess, in part thanks to the awareness generated by NM Tunde Onakoya through his non-profit, Chess In Slums— his Guiness World Record attempt at Times Square, New York earlier this year generating north of $110,000 for US Charity, The Gift of Chess. At the moment, there is hope for a bright future, and Bode maintains that continuing to spread the gospel of chess in Nigeria would propel us to greater heights. He also stresses that inviting foreign masters to our events would expose players to higher levels of competition and allow them improve. One such example was the South South Opens in September 2023 where Egyptian Grandmaster, Abdelrahman Hesham was held to a draw by the young Toluwanimi Okemakinde. Nigerian chess is on the rise, and that reflects even with the consistency of the BKGC Monthly Rapid Tournaments over the past two years. The coach however stresses the need for government intervention, with chess not seen as a priority sport by the Ministry of Sports because of its perceived minimal financial returns at the moment. Many youngsters stand out to Bode, across all Nigerian regions. Deborah Quickpen (12) and Ekunke Goodness (13) from Bayelsa are the first names on his lips, taking big strides in their pre-teens and placing among the best in their age group in Africa. He’s however quick to remind us that Ibadan has her own talents as well. Mufutau Waris and Sambo Joseph of the Blazing Kings Games Club stand out among their peers. Investment in the careers of these talents is his major concern, and he hopes for good things in the future.

Ibadan chess suffered a tragedy of epic proportions when the Awesome Chess Academy, then at the forefront of Ibadan chess, saw their facility in Ashi-Bodija collapse in a freak accident on the 2nd of October, 2022, and one might say that this created a vacuum that a less resolute people would struggle to fill for years. When quizzed on this, Bode Sofoluwe is adamant, hoping in time to expand to hosting classical tournaments. Funding, however, is an obvious hindrance, and he is yet seeking for sponsors. Hopes however are that Blazing Kings Games Club would host a national-level classical tournament next year, the first classical event in Ibadan since Awesome’s last in March, 2022. Mr Sofoluwe is still adamant in his trust in Oyo State, full of praise for the performances of his protégées in National events despite their reduced accessibility to tournaments in comparison with some of their peers.

To those looking to get into chess as players or sponsors, Mr Sofoluwe proposes the sport as a means to better the society. He finds it to be a tool to keep young kids away from social vices through competitive sport, and in truth better their academic performances by encouraging critical thinking in all facets of life. He emphasises it as a cognitive tool for our students at the University of Ibadan, with potential to improve memory while retaining that important recreational element. He encourages potential sponsors to invest in chess, promoting their brands in doing so, and the prospect of the first Nigerian Grandmaster remains attractive to all involved, with the potential to provide much-needed returns in terms of international recognition and tournament winnings.

On global events, Coach Bode predicts the 18-year old challenger, Gukesh Dommaraju to pip World Champion Ding Liren to the crown a month from now. It remains to be seen if his fortune-telling is as good as his coaching.

Okojie Osakwe Simeon