National chess rating tourney fails to take place

Poor organisation led to this year’s National Rated Open Chess Championship failing to take place in Mzuzu over the weekend.

Northern Region Chess League (NRCL) chairperson Isaac Mumba admitted in an interview that his committee failed to get prize money from sponsors Mdina Business Solution and Mdina Lodge due to poor organisation.

The situation forced the organisers to abandon the rated competition to blitz tournament.

“We failed to get the funding for the tournament from our sponsors due to communication breakdown and, instead, opted to change the format from rated to blitz.

“In the blitz format, we only accommodated 14 already rated players out of the 32 who turned up for the tournament from across the country,” Mumba told the media on Sunday evening.

“We are not blaming the sponsors for this mess, it was due to procrastination on our part because at the time we contacted Mdina, he was away on holiday and as for Ilala, it was due to negligence on the part of our treasurer who failed to collect the cheque on the agreed day,” he explained.

On the adopted blitz tournament, Mzuzu-based Overton Kanyinji came out tops after winning all his games in the men’s category while Tupokiwe Msukwa came first in the women’s category.

Wilson Chingati was the runner-up in men’s category while Kelse Mhango came third.

Anne Simwaka was the runner-up in the women’s category followed by Mary Chisale. n