16 Jul 2013

 Goabaone Tangane of Mobile club is the winner of the FIDE rated chess tournament that was held in Mogoditshane over the weekend.

Tangane, on July 13, walked away with P1 000 after scoring six points out of the possible seven. He only lost one point to Baone Kealeboga of Bonyonyo. Tangane is a promising young star who represented Botswana during the Zone 4.3 chess championships that were held in Tlokweng in May this year.

Second position went to former Botswana Chess Federation (BCF) executive member, Chazha Bontsi of Poisonous Snakes Chess Club, who gave the young ones a hard time.

He scored 5.5 points out of the possible seven, losing a point to Under 21 Abdul Kamara, drawing with former Under 21 champion, Kagiso Morwamang of Enpasset Chess Club. Kamara, who plays for Poisonous Snakes snatched position three with five points out of the possible seven.

The best lady price of P600 went to Women International Master (WIM) Boikhutso Modongo who scored four points. Modongo proved to be a force to reckon with when she beat most men in the tournament.

She won against Baone Kealeboga of Bonyonyo in a hot game with only few seconds left. In the youth category, Hineha Modongo emerged the best junior school girl, with Baone Matshaba being crowned best school boy. Both were students from Gabane Community Junior Secondary school.

The one-day rapid chess tournament, which was FIDE rated was held by the federation to improve FIDE rapid ratings of local chess players. The tournament was played in a total of seven rounds with 15 minutes time allocation per each player.

The federation had this time around held the tournament in one section, which saw men and women mixing to battle it out and this was done to encourage women to play with men on higher ratings so that they could also improve their ratings.

BCF public relations director, Keenese Katisenge said in an interview that as part of  grass-roots development, the federation would host an introduction to competitive play tournament for Re Ba Bona Ha centre for young players in August this year.

She said the national youth tournament categorised by age groups from under eight (8) to under 18 years, would also be launched on the day.

Meanwhile, the coaching clinic for 40 young chess players selected during the Morongwa chess tournament recently came to an end on July 13 at Shashe River School in Tonota under the tutelage of FIDE trainer Israel Makwati and development instructor, Jeremiah Dikgang, who equipped the young players with chess basic, opening, middle game and end game skills, amongst others. The coaching clinic started on May 7. Ends