Mphungu takes Presidential Chess crown
Despite being thrown into the den of chess gladiators during last weekend’s finals of the Presidential Chess Championships at Baptist Theological Seminary in Lilongwe, Gerald Mphungu never felt intimidated to pull the strings and win the title.
Even when seeded candidate master Chiletso Chipanga, the country’s highest rated player Joseph Nyambalo lined behind him on the leader-board, the unrated star proved his mettle as he walked out of the chess room with a trophy and a K50 000 (about $125) winners’ purse.
In the ladies’ section, newcomer Wezzie Mzia also caused an upset when she finished ahead of experienced stars Ellen Mpinganjira and Magaret Mgugama following a tie-breaker on four points.
In his final encounter, Mphungu beat the popular favourite Chipanga to claim the title of the five-round contest with four points. That was after beating Fishani Mwagomba and Moses Mphande and drawing against Nyambalo and Hubert Nanthambwe.
“I am lost for words to describe my excitement. However, it did not come easy; I had to invest a lot of cryptic tricks in terms of variations to outsmart my opponents,” Mpungu said.
Chipanga, who recently finished number 62 out of 814 contestants at the Commonwealth and South African Championships in South Africa, took the second position with 3.5 points.
