25 Jan 2018

Chess players will battle for the first silverware of the year in the Airfficiency Individual Chess Championships which will be held this weekend at Mogoditshane Senior Secondary School. 

The now traditional year opening local chess competition commences tomorrow morning and will be played over seven rounds until Sunday. 

In an interview on Wednesday, Botswana Chess Federation (BCF) public relations director, Kutlwano Tatolo said top local players such as Thato Olebile, Providence Oatlhotse, Moakofhi Notha, Barileng Gaealafshwe, Boikhutso Modongo, Tshepiso Lopang and Onkemetse Francis are among the stars that would be participating in the competition. 

“We are also expecting some players from Zambia and Zimbabwe to come and compete in the tournament,” she said.  

Tatolo explained that the competition would be played in three categories; the open, ladies and youth sections. 

She pointed out that every player was allowed to choose to contest in the open section, while the ladies section was reserved for female players only and the youth section for players aged 16 years and below. 

Concerning cash prizes, Tatolo said the champion of the open section will pocket P3 000, while the ladies and youth sections would respectively carry P1 500 and P450 cash prizes for champions.

The BCF spokesperson further explained that the competition is FIDE rated which means that players will be awarded FIDE points according to their performances in the tournament. 

She added that Airfficiency (Pty) Limited, which has sponsored the competition from its inception, has shelled out P25 000 for this year’s edition. Ends