Depaune, for example, is an environmental officer at a local school.īut Depaunae, who travelled as a reserve for the 2018 Olympiad before featuring after a few rounds, is hopeful of a good showing this time. There are no full-time chess players on the Island. The ones who actually play chess in Nauru manage their time well."
One case total lockdown australias free#
Guys who used to do security work play chess in their free time.
One case total lockdown australias for free#
Chess people play for free and most of us are family oriented. "Here, weightlifting is the gold standard. Weightlifting (the country is a Commonwealth powerhouse in this field) and Australian football gets all the attention. The enthusiasm is there (to play) but there needs a push. There is a lack of motivation to play, work commitments, family commitments. "The entire Island has about 15 boards," Depaune says. For one, because there is no money in the game, there is 'no motivation'. The challenges of pursuing chess in an Island like Nauru is too many. It was already agreed upon but because of the lockdown, it was postponed. Now, I'm starting to contact all the companies in the Island for the purposes of sponsorship. Securing a visa to Australia is quite hard but we have got it. "When the lockdown commenced, I thought we wouldn't make it to Chennai," he says over a Zoom call. He has spent his last few weeks dividing his time between practicing his endgame online and contacting sponsors to secure funding (FIDE, the world body, have chipped in with a portion) for the trip.
When the government announced a lockdown to stall the virus' march, Depaune was convinced that their chess team would not make it to Chennai for the Olympiad.ĭepaune, who will be on the main board in Chennai, also doubles up as the general secretary of the Nauru Chess Federation (NCF). While most other countries across the world have learned to live with the virus, Nauru's residents were waking up to their first wave in June 2022.Īt one point of time in late June, roughly 20 per cent of Nauru's population were positive.Īfter not having any community transmission for nearly two years, there was one positive case for every three tests (the case fatality rate, thankfully, has been marginal as more than 98 per cent of the residents are fully vaxxed).Īmong the infected was Ricko Depaune. More recently, Nauru has been in the news because of Covid-19. There is also the existential angst posed by climate change. When Novak Djokovic was held in hotel detention in Australia early this year, the country's existing border relations with Nauru received another round of criticism. mi.), the country finds its way in many pub quizzes. Because of its population (10,873, 2021 figure) and size (smallest island nation, eight sq.
0 kommentar(er)
