Men's team leaps 18 places after impressive Olympiad
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Friday October 12, 2018 12:21
The men’s team stormed into the top 100, after jumping 18 places to finish the tournament, ranked 98th up from 116th. Consistency may have been elusive but the men’s team did enough to improve their standings significantly, even without individual glory to take home. Fide Master, Phemelo Khetho finished the tournament well after winning 65% of his games as he finished with 6.5 points after 10 games.
Reserve player, Thabo Gumpo did very well in five games, losing three of the eight he played, collecting 4.5 points in eight games.
Interestingly, the reserve player had more games at the Olympiad than the team’s Board four player, Moakofi Notha who was off colour despite his cumulated experience at that level. However, Notha would feel proud after securing the only half a point for the team against Malaysia in Round eight.
Woman Fide Master, 17-year-old Besa Masaiti, making her debut at the Chess Olympiad, finished the tournament on a high as she accumulated six points to finish joint highest in the team, along with International Master, Kgalalelo Botlhole.
The two were the only players in the Botswana women’s team to have played all the 11 games, without being rested. Masaiti was the only player in the team to have won in the final two rounds, Round 10, Round 11, against Trinidad and Tobago and Finland.
Little known Masaiti was the star against Kosovo, when she emerged with a full point during the Round five tie that saw the rest of her teammates suffering heavily.
Along with Onkemetse Francis, she would salvage half a point against highly rated Monaco (75th in the world), as Botlhole secured a full point against the French Principality to ensure that Botswana took two points from the tough Round four encounter.
Another Botswana team’s Chess Olympiad debutant, Boitumelo Ndachipiwa might appear to have had a poor tournament with her 1.5 points overall finish from the four games she played as a substitute.
However, details indicate that she was the only player to steal a full point from Ireland in Round seven, as Botswana played a team ranked 13 places above them.
Both debutants proved their worth against Ireland as Masaiti pulled half a point to ensure that the Botswana team took 1.5 points from their much-fancied opponents. The debutants would come to the party once again in Round 10 against Trinidad & Tobago as Masaiti got the full point and reserve player, Boitumelo Radikoro salvaged half a point to add 1.5 points to Team Botswana’s point tally on their way to finishing number 97 in the final rankings, up from 100.
Meanwhile, Onkemetse Francis finished with the highest percentage score in the team, after collecting 5.5 points in nine games.
She was rested for the remaining two games, having been the most consistent in the team as shown by her run of four consecutive wins and draws, as well as successive wins in Round eight and nine.
For the women’s team this year marked the end of the old cycle of the long running women team’s familiar faces of Boikhutso Mudongo, Tshepiso Lopang and the Sabure sisters, with WIMs Botlhole and Francis and lately the young Masaiti, having established themselves as the base of the Botswana women’s team for the foreseeable future.