All the right moves

'Great diversity'

Modi said the popularity of the game is difficult to pinpoint.

"During the liberation struggle, when officers and soldiers were not fighting, they would be playing chess, and a lot of our senior government officials also play chess."

Modi is proud of the cohesion among chess players at the Munuki club, named after a district in Juba, which also sees doctors and ambassadors playing against students.

"There is really great diversity. This unity was shown when we had the conflict in 2013, we looked after each other here. In 2016, the same－it didn't create rifts," he said of the two major battles in Juba.

"I think sports really brings people together, and South Sudan really needs people to know each other. Not through the tribal lens or ethnic lens, but through capacities, capabilities, hobbies and mutual interests."

The chess association president dreams of a day when South Sudan has a dedicated space－free of rowdy soccer fans－to play chess in peace and quiet, and programs introducing the game in schools, especially to girls.

Maybe it will also have a "number of grandmasters"－the highest title a chess player can attain.

"The challenge we face is in order to rise up in the ranks you need to have your players playing competitively, and financially most of our players cannot afford it," Modi said.

Longing for stability

Juba was rocked by violent bloodshed when war broke out between supporters of President Salva Kiir and his former vice-president Riek Machar in December 2013, and again in July 2016 when a peace deal collapsed.

The last agreement to end the war was signed last September and fighting has largely stopped in much of the country, with residents of Juba remarking on the absence of evening gunfire.

For young people like Legge, peace makes a stable future a real possibility.

"We need our leaders to stick to the agreement to bring peace because we, as a generation－I, as an engineer－want to participate," he said. "I want to have the role of putting something on the ground."

AFP