Chessam eyes top titles
Chess Association of Malawi (Chessam) has said its plans to produce top players are on course after Fide Master [FM] Joseph Mwale and Kenya-based Lakshitta Dutt impressed at the just-ended Kenyan Open Chess Championship.
Mwale finished on position 26 out of 353 players while Dutt came eighth out of 92 players.
Chessam Publicity Secretary Francisco Mwangupili described the duo’s performance as encouraging.
“We are encouraged by our players’ performance. As an association, our vision is to produce Malawi’s first International Master [IM] and a GM [grandmaster].
“Attaining these titles requires that the player defeats the title holders. Joseph’s victory over an IM [international master] is a clear indication that our game is on the right track,” Mwangupili said.
Chessam, with support from Satguru Travel, sponsored Mwale to fly Malawi’s flag in Kenya while 15-year-old Dutt was supported by her family.
Dutt still plays under the Malawi federation despite moving to the East African country with her family.
After nine rounds, Mwale had a 72.2 percent win-rate, losing only to GM Safarli Eltaj from Azerbaijan and another GM Hesham Abdelrahman of Egypt in rounds three and nine, respectively.
The Malawian won the rest of the games and drew one, finishing with 6.5 points out of nine.
His major highlight at the tournament was when he defeated IM Gillian Bwalya, who is Zambia’s number one on Fide rankings.
The five-day championship was held at Sarit Expo Centre in Nairobi and attracted over 400 players from 26 countries.
GMs from countries such as India, Azerbaijan, Russia and United States also participated.
