By RONALD CHAWE –
THE Chess Federation of Zambia (CFZ) has planned to use the Luapula Chess League Association (LCLA) and parterres Open tournament as a second phase of the national team selection event.
The event which is set for January 12-14, 2018 at Henry Courtyard Executive Lodge in Mansa, would only see national champions in both men’s and ladies categories  exempted.
International Master(IM) Andrew Kayonde and Women Fide Master (WFM) Lorita Mwango are the two current national champions.
CFZ general secretary Chanda Nsakanya, who revealed the development said the event would come after the zones had held their zonal rating tournaments where each zone picks their top 10 players.
He said the tournament would be an eight rounds Fide rated event to be played under the Swiss System.
“All the national team players together with International Masters and titled players will join in this phase. The federation will then pick the top nine  players from the second phase to go into the final phase to be held on March. Players who are eligible to participate are those who will qualify from their respective Zones and nominated players,” he said.
Nsakanya said the second phase would be on knock-out basis for the first game and there after the normal tournament would  start.
He said the eliminated players would  join the main section in round one and that if a match is tied after the game, a tie break would be played immediately.
Nsakanya, who is also International Arbiter (IA) and International Organiser(IO) explained that the format for the tie break would be that if the scores are tied, an Armageddon game in which a draw counts as a win for black pieces played.
He said  white pieces would be given five minutes and black four minutes, with an increment of three seconds move starting from move one.
A winner for elite trials event would receive K10, 000 with runner up pocketing K6, 000 while third and fourth finishers will walk away with K4, 000 and K2, 000 respectively.
The winner in the main section, second, third and fourth slots finishers are expected to get K5,000,  K4,00, K3,000  and K1,500 each respectively.
The fifth, sixth,seventh and eight are entitled to K500 each with a winner in the ladies category expected to receive K3,000 while runner up and third positions getting  K2,000 and K1,000 each respectively.