The tournament, which attracted chess players from Lesotho, Zambia and Zimbabwe was held over the Easter holidays from April 18-20. Kabaso Bwalya from Zambia walked away with a whooping cash prize of P3, 000 and a gold medal after winning the open section category. Bradley Moyo and Gaolathe Motunge from Zimbabwe and Botswana scooped position two and three respectively and were each rewarded P2, 000 and P1, 200. Furthermore, Dimpho Ramaselwane of Botswana and Relebeletse Tlaitlai from Lesotho were the tournament best ladies.
Shatiso Masocha won the Under-16 category whereas Cleopatra Rankwa and Pelontle Paul were the champions of the Under-13 and 10 respectively. The tournament was sponsored by Jacaranda School with a whooping prize money for P10, 000. According to the tournament organiser and also director of Francistown School of Chess, Thapelo Grivas Molefe ,the tournament was divided into four categories, thus open, Under-16, Under-13 and development. He said there were only eight females and 54 males with 23 of them being children. He also expressed gratitude to their sponsor for their continued support over the last seven years of their partnership. "They have been good to us in many ways in terms of chess development. We manage their chess club and have always donated to other causes of charity through our chess school," he added. Giving a background of Francistown School of Chess, Grivas said that it was founded in order to discover and nurture chess talent across the country. He stated that their main focus is children between the ages of four years to 20 years and sometimes beyond. "We are also involved with public schools and marginalised kids through donation of chess sets and offering free chess lessons," he added Grivas elaborated that they also provide the junior national team with at least three payers every year. He also said they made history in 2019 when their members made 50% of the junior national team.
The Francistown school of Chess director stated that they had six out of 12 of the junior national team. Overall, he indicated that the Francistown School of Chess has over 60 students from the second city and surrounding areas. He also encouraged parents to support their children to join chess because it is a good sport, which contributes immensely to the development of a child.
