Youthful Chess teams invading South Africa

 

A team from Botswana competing at the African Schools Chess Championships in Limpopo-South Africa is reported to be doing extremely well.According to Botswana Chess Federation (BCF) Secretary General Mokwadi Tingwane who travelled with the youthful team to South Africa, the team made up of 16 players (girls and boys) has registered more than 50 wins after round 6 of the tournament. The team is competing in the under 7, 9,11,13,15 and 17 categories.

The team has among others the likes of the brainy Women Fide Master (WFM) Naledi Marape, Women Candidate Master (WCM) Gabatshwarwe Refilwe and Candidate Master (CM) Iphazha Masala.To this end, the likes of Ruth Otisitswe, playing in the under 15, Gabatshwarwe (13), Atang Mosweu (11) and Laone Moshoboro (9) are yet to lose a game.  “The team is doing very well and from all the results we can confidently say half of our athletes are in the medals category,” Tingwane said. He explained that the intention is to return home with at least nine medals from the competition.

The BCF Secretary General said the team is performing better than expected given that the children did not attend any training session ahead of the games.  “Due to lack of time we never had a training camp, we just gathered and went straight for the competition,” he said. The tournament might not be well attended however the competition level is said to be strong as there are several titled and rated players in most categories. Countries participating at the tournament are Namibia, Mozambique, Angola, Malawi, Kenya and South Africa. The games will end on the 13th of December.