Rising chess star defeats Grand Master

Local chess player Candidate Master (CM) Ndawana Mosenya is on a mission to acquire a new Fide Master (FM) title by the end of this year. Speaking to this publication in an interview this week, Mosenya said that he is aiming for the stars and his intention is to change his current rankings and title (CM). The ambitious Mosenya feels that the current title does not suit his current game level. “I feel above it, this is my year of breakthrough and bringing home positive results. This is a work in progress that I am willing to undergo,” he said.

As one of the best performing senior chess players locally, Mosenya is convinced that he is currently at the peak of his chess career and his recent performance serves as testimony. Mosenya draws inspiration from his past weekend victory where he managed to defeat and humble British Grandmaster Nigel Short during the Talking Squares Chess Trust Grandmasters programme tournament.

During the weekend simultaneous clash between Short and 22 other local athletes, Mosenya made the chess community proud when he became the only Motswana to defeat the highly rated British grandmaster. The local player managed to contain Short throughout the game until he finally embarrassed him in the end. “My strategy was to play to the best of my ability and avoid unnecessary mistakes, I pushed him to a point where he could no longer contain the pressure and I took over,” Mosenya said. He noted that he managed to pull it off through intensive training and proper research on short, saying he watched more of his games and studied his way of play on the Internet.

Moreover, team Botswana managed to give Short a good run for his money as the Grandmaster found himself neck to neck with the likes of Moakofi Notha, Kgolagano Makalane and John Hutcheson. Meanwhile Short left one of the country‘s best players Barileng Gaealafshwe in stitches during the day, coming into the tournament, Gaealafshwe had said that it was a dream come true for him to play against the grandmaster. However Short did not have any mercy on the local player, “I did not play my opening game well, nevertheless it was a lesson well learnt, I have since gone back to the drawing board and will do better next time,” he said.

For his part, the founder of the trust Kenneth Boikhutswane said they managed to reach an agreement with Short, that he will play the ambassadorial role of their project. He is also said to have promised to find a grandmaster who can reside in Botswana and deliver the project. Short is also said to have promised that he will then visit Botswana once or twice a year to review the implementation of the programme with the resident grandmaster.