26 Aug 2013

Botswana Chess Federation (BCF) has introduced new awards for the annual Turbo Refrigeration Master Chess Championships.

The new awards, which were introduced over the weekend during the tournament dubbed Master Open are the Non-Playing Chess Master, Most Consistent a high profile figure), Oldest Player and the Host award.

This year’s Non-Playing Master award was awarded to Botswana National Sports Council chairperson, Solly Reikeletseng in his absence, the Most Consistent Master award went to Turbo Refrigeration for sponsoring the master tournament consistently for seven years.

The Guest Player went to the chief executive officer of ACHAP, Dr Jerome Mafeni while the Oldest Player award went to Nicholas Randall. The Host award was given to Yarona Country Lodge for being the home of chess for the past consistent years.

Meanwhile, the tournament saw Jona Chaka of Poisonous Snakes Chess Club scooping the overall champion with 7.5 points followed by Molale Ofentse of Bonyonyo Chess Club with 7 points. On third spot was Mosenya Ndawana of Poisonous Snakes Chess Club with Kealeboga Baone coming fourth with 6 points.

BCF president, Tshenolo Maruatona described the tournament as the best in terms of strength and the number of participants who turned up.
He encouraged the winner of this year’s tournament to identify his own primary school of choice to mentor a selected number of students for a period of one year.

He noted that the federation would also provide chess sets and study material and monitor the programme for the entire period adding that for chess to grow in Botswana, it has to start at grass-roots level. Last year, the event was taken to another level when it was combined with a social responsibility gesture, and the federation together with the main sponsor Turbo Registration identified Shadishadi primary school in the Kweneng District  and donated chess equipment.

The event which has been running for the past seven years is an initiative by BCF to provide a platform for older players and to tap into their experience and wisdom of chess for the development of the game.  ENDS