04 Feb 2021

Botswana Chess Federation secretary general, Mokwaledi Tingwane, has commended chess players, who participated at the Africa Online Individual Chess Championship tournament, which started on Monday ending today.

In an interview with BOPA, he said participants did well and most were on the top 10 rank and had accumulated an overall of four points from the five games played thus far.

“This is a very competitive tournament with players from countries such as Egypt and Algeria.

I am pleased that the players this time have shown the resilience spirit to fight and finish off in better positions, which would improve their ranks,” he said.

Tingwane said eight players, who were deployed to play in the championship, were sponsored by Botswana Chess Federation  while the other two, were self-sponsored.

He also said Botswana participated in four sections of the tournament, instead of five.

Tingwane stated they participated in the  open section, ladies section, under 20 girls sections and under 20 boys.

He said in the under 20 girls section, players did well and came out in top 10 of the 20 participants in the section.

He said the likes of Women Feeder Masters, Betha Masaite and Naledi Marape  as well as Women Candidate Master, Nathali Banda ranged between three to four points.

He further highlighted that regardless of tough competition in the under 20 girls sections, Botswana team did well.

He noted that the under 20 boys section was very competitive after finding themselves out of top 10 bracket.

He further stated that Onalethata Tsholofelo stood a good chance of improving his position as he was on position 15.

For her part, 14-year-old, Marape noted that despite doing well, they had a challenge of connectivity and playing online.

She noted that playing online had its own difficulties as compared to playing on board, noting that they were still in a learning process.

Marape said despite COVID-19 pandemic, the regulations and protocols had helped them to train and master their game during this time as they had more time to train and get new style of playing.

She said she played four rounds against Algeria, Egypt, South Africa and Angola and lost only to an Egyptian player.

Marape commented other Botswana players for good performance and being on top 10.  ENDS