Chess Lover Introduces Game to Malawi
As a teenager in Malawi, while her peers spent their allowances on snacks, Susan Namangale pooled her small savings with friends to buy two chessboards for their school. “If my mother knew what I’d done with the little pocket money she gave me, I’d have been in trouble,” she recalled, smiling. “But that’s how much I had fallen in love with chess.”
Now 49, Ms. Namangale is determined to dismantle the notion that chess is a game reserved for the elite. She has worked tirelessly to bring the game to rural schools, prisons, and underserved communities. “Chess is for everyone,” she said in a recent interview in Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital.
Her journey began at age 9, when her older sister brought home a chessboard after receiving it as a gift from Peace Corps volunteers. Once her sister returned to school, Susan had no one to play with in her village of Chombo, where chess was unfamiliar. Nevertheless, her interest only grew stronger.
She became an active player in secondary school tournaments and later joined her university chess club, where she was one of only two women. After entering the workforce, she continued playing competitively until balancing work and family life led her to focus on chess administration instead.
That pivot led her to serve as president of the Chess Association of Malawi from 2018 to 2022. She now holds a leadership position in the International Chess Federation, overseeing chess development across 10 Southern African countries—the first woman to do so.
Although she held managerial roles in energy, telecommunications, and at the World Bank, in 2023 she left salaried work to grow chess at the grassroots level. Her first initiative was setting up chess clubs in rural schools, starting in Chombo. There are now more than 150 clubs across Malawi because of her efforts.
In 2023, she founded Dadaz Chess Academy in Lilongwe, using her savings. “I wanted to teach my son the game I love,” she said. The academy now enrolls over 100 children, offering chess lessons, after-school classes, and music instruction to kids as young as five.
She also created a shelter in Lilongwe where street children can gather to learn chess. Since many arrive hungry, she partnered with a local institution to provide meals alongside lessons—an initiative dubbed “chess and nsima,” after Malawi’s staple porridge. “Some of these children had never seen a chessboard,” said instructor Stanford Chibambo.
Born in 1976 in Chombo, Ms. Namangale grew up in a family of eight, raised by a single mother. She spent her childhood fishing and selling sugarcane to support her family. With help from an older sibling, she earned a degree in environmental science in 1999 and later a master’s in business administration.
She credits chess for helping her academic development and now shares that gift with others. Fourteen-year-old Thandizo Mpyela, one of her students, dreams of becoming a doctor. “Chess has improved my math skills and inspired me,” he said. “Madam Namangale grew up in this village and is now conquering the world.”
Her work has gained international attention. In 2024, she became global head of the Gift of Chess, a nonprofit aiming to distribute a million chessboards worldwide by 2030. She also participates in “Chess for Freedom,” a global program that uses the game in prisons for rehabilitation. “One mistake doesn’t make you a loser,” she tells inmates. “You can still make a better move and win.”
Looking ahead, she is working with Malawi’s Ministry of Education to incorporate chess into school curriculums. “This game teaches critical life skills like planning,” she said. “If a girl from a village like myself can become a global chess leader, imagine what a million others could do with just a chessboard.”
