Malawi women rise at Chess Olympiad
The Malawi Women’s chess team has moved up from its starting position of 137 to 127 out of 169 contesting nations at the 45th World Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary.
The 10-step improvement was confirmed on Sunday after they thumped Djibouti 4-0 to take their tally to four points after five rounds of games. There have six rounds to go.
The women’s team has so far won two games and lost three. The latest win comes after they beat Bhutan 4-0 but lost by a similar margin to Philippines, Jordan and Palestine.
Meanwhile, the men’s team has maintained its starting position of 123 out of 187 teams in the open section after going down 0.5-3.5 to neighbours Zambia.
They have four points from five rounds following two wins and three losses. They beat E-swatini 3-1 and Lesotho 2.5-1.5. Their defeats include 4-0 to Croatia and 3.5-0.5 to Bolivia.
According to Chess-results.com, India are leaders in both open and women’s divisions with 10 points.
Among the African teams, South Africa are the best in the open section on position 58 while Algeria, with an overall position of 101 before press time, were the best among the continent’s women.
On Sunday, the Malawi women’s team plucked the latest win through former Chess Association of Malawi (Chessam) president Susan Namangale, Tupokiwe Msukwa, Annie Simwaba and Rachel Jaylos who outsmarted Djibouti’s Mohamoud Elmi Johara, Mohamde Ibrahim Moun, Ismail Hassan Sagual and Mahdi Abdillahi Yousra, respectively.
“It is good that our women successfully recovered from a poor start and have upped their game. We are very proud of their performance and we hope they will keep up the good work,” said Chess Association of Malawi (Chessam) president Mpilo Mizere.
He expressed optimism that the men’s team will engage an extra gear in their campaign.
