The National Open Oware Tournament is the pre-eminent series of annual tournaments organised by the SBA Oware Society Ghana to engage the public, involve stakeholders and promote Oware playing. Apart from being the determining tournament for the national team to participate in international assignments, it will also serve to enthuse the general public about Oware playing. In addition it will serve these purposes:
* Contribute towards national development by developing minds
* Promote the development of a national schools program
* Develop technicalities of competitive Oware playing
* Create awareness of the international Oware playing fraternities.
The tournament is an annual event that will enlist partnership with traditional playing groups to make it a household event in the national calendar. The tournament will be organised in three states: Preliminary, Zonal (Regions) and a Grand Final. The plan is for the Grand Final starting of in Accra will tour all 16 regions in rotation in subsequent years.
The National Open Oware Tournament will consist of 3 stages: Preliminary (District), Regional, National. The Abapa variant of Oware will be used for the competition. Matches will be timed utilising count down clocks to manage times. The tournaments will be contested in three categories: female, male & the youth.
The tournament will consist of a Preliminary Tournament: seven round Swiss league matches. Players from the whole nation are invited to register to participate. Players from the same locality / district will be paired to play at a playing group or mutually agreed location with a referee to validate the results. This is scheduled to take place on in June 2026.
Zonal Tournaments, grouping several adjacent regions into a zone, are to be competed utilising a seven round Swiss System league. It will be hosted at a regional conference hall with a tournament management team consisting of arbiters and support staff. These tournaments are scheduled to take place on consecutive Sunday’s starting on Sunday 5th July to 9th August 2026.
The National Grand Final tournament will be hosted at a prominent venue in Accra, such as an upmarket hotel’s conference hall. The target date is Sunday 16th August 2026. A seven round Swiss System league will be used to manage the tournament.
All participants be awarded certificates of participation. The three highest ranking players in each category will be awarded championship medals. Finally the winners in each category will receive a trophy.
First 2 in the male & female players from each category will be sponsored to represent Ghana in the XXX Mind Sports Olympiad in London, UK 🇬🇧 (so long as entry visas can be secured) & the VI World Nomad Games in Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬.
A lottery of registered participants will be run to select one participant to accompany the team to both tournaments.
The registration fee is 20 Ghs. To register click this link: https://www.owaresocietygh.org/registration-formevent/ fill out the form with all the information requested and submit.
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