Strong field for junior chess tourney
Chakalisa Dube | Friday May 17, 2019 11:12
The participating categories are Under-Eight, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 18. The tournament, which has drawn the best talent in the country, will be used to select national team players who will participate at the African Youth Chess Championships in Namibia.
The Francistown Championships will be the first of three to be used to select players for the Namibia tournament. The final selection will be made in September.
“For the youth qualifiers, we mostly depend on schools to supply us with players. This time around we will have around 300 learners from schools around the country. We have learners from as far as Gantsi,” Botswana Chess Federation (BCF) development director,
Michael Mbaiwa said in an interview yesterday. Eleven-year old chess sensation Thuto Mpene, who will represent Botswana in Kampala at the Africa Schools Chess Championships next week, is expected to participate at the Francistown event.
Amongst his many accolades are a bronze medal at the Namibian Open as well as a silver medal at the South African Wild Card.
One the country’s young and talented chess players, Fide Master Naledi Marape will also be part of the weekend championships. Marape recently participated at the Africa Junior Championship in Entebbe, Uganda.
The competition took place between December 2018 and January this year. Woman FIDE Master, Besa Masaite will feature in the Under-18 category. Amongst her many accolades Masaite was a nominee for the Junior Sports Person of the year at the 2017 Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) awards.
“We expect very high profile players because the games will be used to select players for the national team,” Mbaiwa said.
“From the Francistown tournament, we intend to select 20 players from each category. However, the last two youth championships leading to the Namibia tournament, will be used to significantly trim down the team. The intension is to select one player for each of the six categories (in both male and female categories) for the Nambia competition.”
According to Mbaiwa those who excel during the Debswana sponsored competitions will be rewarded with trophies and medals.
“Because this a development competition we found it ideal to reward winners with medals and trophies rather than money. Others will be given books about the game, in order to improve their performance,” said Mbaiwa.