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Malawi chess team ranked 126th

Malawi has made notable progress on world chess rankings having moved up from 149 to 126.

This is according to latest world rankings released by world chess governing body Fide last Friday.chess

The rankings, which are rationed by considering an average rating of top 10 players of a particular country, show that Russia has maintained the first position. It has 232 grand masters (GMs) and 522 international masters (IMs) with 2 393 titles.

China, which has 37 GMs and 31 IMs cherishing with 143 total titles, is on second position.

The rankings, according to Fide website http://ratings.fide.com/topfed.phtml, show that Egypt tops the ladder on the continent, but is ranked 48th in the world. It has four GMs and 29 IMs and has 68 titles whereas Morocco are second, but 69th in the world.

Malawi is on position 22 in Africa just four places above Lesotho who are the least ranked side in the world (164).

Malawi national chess team has no GMs and IMs from the rating of its top 10 chess players—Joseph Nyambalo, Chiletso Chipanga, Joseph Mwale, Charles Chimthere, Richard Mbedza, Petros Mfune, Chuma Mwala, Gerrald Mphungu, Paul Khuphwathea and Francis Banda.

Malawi Chess Association (Chessam) president Kezzie Msukwa said there is need for Malawi to improve further on the rankings.

“I am not happy with our ranking, however, the solace is that our national team is still very active and will be participating in the World Chess Olympiad which plays a vital role on the rankings,” said Msukwa.

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