14 Oct 2014

En Passent Chess Club were on  October 12 crowned champions of the inaugural Debswana Clubs Chess Championships after winning six out of seven rounds.

About nine clubs affiliated to Botswana Chess Federation (BCF) and three developmental teams played at the two-day event held at Yarona Country Lodge in Mogoditshane and sponsored by Debswana with P20 000.

En Passent struck great form and convincingly claimed the title and P3 500 first prize after garnering 13 points, two ahead of runners-up Mobile Chess Club.

Each team was allowed to field six competitors comprising four main players of any gender in the first four boards, while boards five and six were reserved for female and under-21 players respectively. En Passent started their road to glory with a 5-1 demolition of Mochudi Chess Club in round one, before clobbering BIUST 5.5-0.5 in round two.

Their relentless form continued with 4-2 defeats of bronze medalists Black Bishops and second place finishers Mobile Chess Club, before further victories over Desert Pawns and BDF confirmed their top spot. They then eased off in the last round when facing their second string team, En Passent B, whom they drew with 3-3.

Mobile Chess Club won their first three matches, but a loss to En Passent in round four saw them eventually finish in second place with 11 points, getting silver medals and P2 500 in prize monies.

Black Bishops settled for third place with ten points, while Mochudi Chess Club, Ice Queens and En Passent B shared fourth position with 8 points each.

Delta Pawns and BDF shared position seven with seven points respectively, while BIUST came ninth and Kings Development and Mobile Chess Academy shared position 10. 

The last position went to Ice Queens Team B with just a single point.

BCF president Tshenolo Maruatona said the objective of staging the Debswana Clubs Chess Championships was to give teams an opportunity to get themselves ready for the annual teams championships which will be held next month. Another objective, he said, was to give teams platform to organise themselves and be active because the federation has realised that a lot of affiliated clubs remain dormant much of the year.

“We have a big problem as a federation in that our teams are not all active. 

We have a situation where teams come out to play in one big event, then they disperse and come back the following year,” said the BCF boss.

He challenged clubs to consider staging club championships annually so that they can get more opportunities of competing with each other, which would result with growth in the standard of chess. ENDS