17 Oct 2013

Chess players that represented the country at the just ended 2013 Africa Youth Championships in Port Elizabeth, South Africa had a tough tournament despite  gaining Elo ratings to increase their ratings.

Elo rating system is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian born American physics professor and the system calculates the skills level of players in competitor vs competitor games such as the game of chess.

Botswana was represented by 13 players in total, six official players and seven additional players. After a tough quest at the championships, Goabaone Tangane who represented Botswana in the U-18 boys category came joint fourth after accumulating the same number of points with two other players from Egypt and Algeria.

Young Abhiram Sasitheran won a bronze medal in the U-14 boys’ category after scoring 5.5 points out of the total nine rounds that were played. Botswana Chess Federation (BCF) public relations director, Keenese Katisenge explained that they had learnt a lot from the games.

The tournament was part of the preparations planned by BCF to prepare the youth for The 2014 World Youth Chess Championships that will be held in Durban, South Africa.

The team was accompanied by BCF secretary general and development Instructor, Alex Mpuisang as head of delegation, International Master, Providence Oatlhotse as the coach and some parents.

The tournament was played in two sections, namely, the Open and Girls sections and players from the (U-8, U-10, U-12, U-14, U-16 and U-18) age categories from all national chess federations affiliated to the African Chess Confederation competed.

The team arrived October 17 from a tournament that started on October 7-15. Ends