08 Oct 2013

Botswana Chess Federation (BCF) has sent a team of two boys and two girls to the Africa Youth Chess Championships scheduled for Port Elizabeth’s Boardwalk Hotel, Convention Centre and Spa, in South Africa.

These are Goabaone Tangane and Marape Marape (boys) and Maleboge Sokisi and Lame Kolaatamo (girls). A press release from BCF stated that the tournament would start on Wednesday (October 8) and ends on October 15.

Goabaone won Botswana Junior Closed boys section and represented Botswana in the Zone 4.3 chess championships where he shocked spectators by beating a highly rated International Master, Kenney Solomon from South Africa. Tangane also played all 2013 rated tournaments organised by the federation. 

Lame represented Botswana at a world event, the 2013 Commonwealth Chess Championships that were held in South Africa. She won bronze during the recent Botswana Open Chess Champs after accumulating the same number of points with 5 other players. 

Marape Junior is the Rebabonaha National Chess Championships and he had also won in the under 10 age category of Botswana Junior Closed.   Malebogo is Botswana’s Junior Closed Girls section Champion. She also played well in the Morongwa tournaments.

The players were selected after displaying unquestionable commitment to the game, discipline and impressive performance in local and regional tournaments hosted in 2013. The release stated that the tournament will be played in accordance with FIDE regulations on a 9 Round Swiss System basis with a free day after round 5.

The rate of play would be in accordance with the FIDE rules: 90 minutes, with an addition of 30 seconds per move starting from move one (Fisher System). The release further states that the winners of each age group category (both Open and Girls) will be awarded personal rights to participate at the 2014 World Youth Chess Championships.

The winners in each age group category will also be awarded FIDE titles (in the event of combined age groups, the titles will still be awarded to the winners of the age groups provided that the player scores at least 60 per cent and there are at least eight players per age group. There are 40 countries including Botswana that are affiliated to the African Chess Confederation. ENDS