Five players seeded in Mdina Chess
At least five players have been seeded in the national finals of the 2017 Mdina Chess Championship scheduled for August 24 at Illala Crest Lodge in Mzuzu.
According to Chess Association of Malawi (Chessam) spokesperson Makhosi Nyirenda, last year’s champion Zambia Godwin Phiri has been exempted from the qualifiers alongside 2015 ladies’ category champion Magret Ngugama and the top-three players that will emerge in the Muleso-Mphande Chess Championship in July.
He said other players will have to go through the regional qualifiers if they are based in Malawi while those living outside the country will have to make special requests to Chessam for consideration based on their ratings on the world rankings’ table.
“This is a rated tournament whereby local players can tremendously improve their performance if they compete against the best players in the Southern African region. This is why we only want the best foreign-based players to join the race,” he said.
The national champion in the open category is expected to receive K300 000 first prize and a trophy while second-placed and third-positioned players will get K140 000 and K60 000, respectively.
In the ladies’ section, the winner will take home K100 000 plus a trophy whereas runner-up and third-placed players will get K60 000 and KK40 000 in that order.
The regional leagues have been told to organise their qualifiers by the end of July. Southern and Central Regions are expected to contribute eight players each in the open category while Northern Region has been privileged to supply nine players as hosts.
The ladies’ section will see the Southern and Central Region qualifying their top-five players each while the North will have six.
South Africa-based Mdina Business Solutions managing director Tiwone Mdina said his company might spice up the annual competition with other items such as T-shirts on top of the K1 million sponsorship.
