Chess proves mettle with BNSC nominations
Calistus Kolantsho | Friday April 4, 2014 14:43
The Botswana Chess Federation (BCF) has been nominated for sport code of the year award while International Woman Master, Boikhutso Mudongo and Kelapile Kelatlhilwe will compete in the sports woman and umpire of the year categories respectively.
BCF spokesperson, Keenese Katisenge told Mmegi Sport that the nominations are a motivation and the result of the successful hosting of the Africa Zone 4.3 chess championships last April.
During the tournament, Botswana won two medals in the women’s section; silver and bronze through Mudongo and Thapelo Francis. In the same event, Francis became Woman FIDE Master.
“We have championed an aggressive grassroots development programme that saw the introduction of chess in primary schools. The federation has donated over 200 chess sets and 500 chess books to close to 30 primary schools,” said Katisenge.
Meanwhile, BCF will host a World Chess Federation (FIDE) rated open blitz tournament at the National Stadium in Gaborone over the weekend. Katisenge said that the event will be a free-for-all with no female or male section.
A total of 11 rounds will be played with time allocation of 10 minutes per player in a sudden death format.
“A blitz chess tournament is useful in teaching chess players to think very fast and serves as an indicator of a chess player’s skills,” Katisenge explained.
She pointed out that Botswana has produced very good blitz players like Candidate Master, Moakofi Notha, International Master, Providence Oatlhotse, Candidate Master, Thato Olebile, Woman Fide Master, Kgalalelo Botlhole, Woman Candidate Master, Onkemetse Francis, Gorata Leso, Success Elias and Abhiram Sasitharan.