Chipanga lifts flag high in African Chess Tourney
Malawi’s candidate master (CM) Chiletso Chipanga on Wednesday beat highly rated Algerian GM Abdulraheem Abdulrahman Akintoye in Round 7 of the African Individual Chess Championship (AICC) taking place at Golden Peacock Hotel in Lilongwe.
It was another sterling performance from Chipanga who also beat Zambian international master (IM) Andrew Kayonde on Wednesday.
The win took him to fifth position behind (GM) Adyl Ahmed (Egypt) on first, Amin Bassem Egypt (second), Fawzy Adham of Egypt (third) and Bilel Bellahcene of Algeria (fourth).
Only four players will qualify for the World Cup, according to African Chess Federation president Lewis Ncube.
“This 2021 AICC will be used as a qualifier for the World Cup and the slot is only four. It is an important tournament and that’s why the best in chess from Africa is here in Malawi,” he said.
In an interview yesterday, Chipanga said the competition has proved that Malawi has good players.
“We are making a statement that Malawi has players who can can do well on world stage. We just have been unfortunate because we don’t take part often in international tournaments so our rankings are low,” he said.
Another Malawian fide master Joseph Mwale is now 11th after dropping points following two successive losses.
In the women category, Shriyan Santosh Priyasha is also in the top five.
February Jesse Nikki (South Africa) is top, second is Lina Nassr (Algeria), Moaataz Ayah (Egypt) third and Wafa Shahenda (Egypt) is fourth.
The ranks might change as we went to press with games taking place late yesterday.
