14 May 2014

Schools in the northern region were the main winners at the four-day Mater Spei College Chess 2014 championships organised by the Botswana Chess Federation (BCF), which started on Saturday (May 11) and ended on Tuesday (May 13).

The annual tournament, which this year attracted 1 392 players in the boys and girls categories was sponsored by the host, Mater Spei College to the tune of P40 000.

This was a 100 per cent increase of the sponsorship by the college after they popped out P20 000 last year.

In the senior schools girls category, Mater Spei were crowned the champions beating the defending champions Nata Senior Secondary School who got the runner-up position and Shashe River School as the bronze medallist.

The boys’ category for the senior schools saw Swaneng Hill School finishing as the champions with Mogoditshane and Lobatse Senior Schools scooping the second and third positions respectively.

BCF development director, Mothokomedi Thabano, explained that Swaneng Hill players consisting of Candidate Master Bomphemetse Kelebonye, Jason Modimoosi and Ditiro Letsogile started playing together from primary school at Makolojwane in Serowe.

He said they proceeded together to junior school until Swaneng and they are still a team to beat during competitions.

Candidate Master Kelebonye was also crowned the best player in the senior schools category with a total score of 11/11 scores.

In other results in the junior schools girls’ category, the defending champions who were also the favourites to win, Nkange from Nkange village retained their title despite starting poorly and losing a game to Ditsweletse, which threatened to topple them this year.

It was however unfortunate for Ditsweletse girls to lose sight of the title when they lost two consecutive games in the last rounds.

In the boys’ category, Tsodilo from Maun became the winner of the tourney followed by Mosetlha from Bobonong and Goldmine of Francistown respectively.

For the primary schools where the players played as individuals, Our Lady of the Desert players Tshenolo Matlhodi and Larona Otimile scooped position one and two respectively.

Pelotshwaana’s Onneetse Rankoane became the winner in the boys’ category with Maago Lebang of Regent and Marape Marape Junior of Baobab securing second and third positions.

Thabano stated that the performance of primary schools was impressive in the sense that although they have centres of excellence, they did not have constant competitions, which the players could compete on.

It was for that reason that unlike the junior and senior schools, which played as teams, the primary schools had to play as individuals so that they could spot players.

Those spotted will be selected for the provisional national team camp where the best players will be selected to represent the country at the youth chess championships tournament slated for Durban, South Africa in September.

He highlighted that although they spotted some outstanding players, they were still going to have another tournament in June at Sowa Junior School in Nata. That is where they will continue to make assessment of best players to make the national team for the youth championship games.

The winners were awarded medals and trophies courtesy of Mater Spei as the sponsor of the tournament. ENDS