Antony Chawagarira
BULAWAYO – For the next two weeks, the classroom will take a back seat as Bulawayo teacher and chess player Nomalungelo Mathe represents Zimbabwe at the 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
Mathe, a teacher in Bulawayo Metropolitan Province and a Woman Candidate Master, is part of the Zimbabwe women’s team competing against some of the world’s leading chess nations.
She will play on Board Three, bringing with her a decade of international experience and a growing record of achievements both on and off the chessboard.
The Samarkand tournament is Mathe’s fourth Chess Olympiad, having made her debut at the 2014 Olympiad in Tromsø, Norway, while she was still a schoolgirl.
Her international chess journey began a year earlier when she represented Zimbabwe at the World Schools Individual Chess Championship in Greece, competing in the Under-17 category.
Since then, Mathe has successfully combined her teaching career with competitive chess and coaching, becoming an inspiration to young players who see the game not only as a sport, but also as a tool for discipline, concentration, and personal development.
Away from international competitions, she coaches chess under the National Association of Secondary Heads (NASH) in Bulawayo Province.
Her coaching efforts recently yielded impressive results when Bulawayo Province finished first in a NASH chess competition, marking the first time this has happened since Mathe herself competed as a schoolgirl.
Her individual record has also continued to grow.
Mathe won the 2022 CABS Candidates, the 2025 Easter Silver Open and the 2025 CABS Candidates. In 2026, she shared first place at the J. Mawere Open before finishing among the top five at the Minerva Open.
She currently holds a rating of 1792.
At the Olympiad, Mathe joins senior teammates Christine Makwena and Kudzanai Charinda in a relatively young Zimbabwean women’s team seeking to gain valuable experience on the international stage.
For Mathe, however, the assignment carries significance beyond the results recorded on the chessboard.
Her students are expecting their teacher back in the classroom on September 28, and she hopes her experience in Samarkand will give her more than medals or points to take home.
She wants to return with stories and lessons from the global competition that can motivate her students and other young chess players to pursue the game seriously.
Mathe is among several Zimbabwean representatives at the Olympiad who are balancing professional careers with the demands of representing their country at the international level.
Her journey from a schoolgirl chess player to a national team player and teacher highlights how sporting and professional careers can complement each other while creating opportunities to inspire the next generation.
