By SHAMAOMA MUSONDA –
THE Chess Federation of Zambia (CFZ) has picked Michael Kaoma and Elastrida Yombwe as representatives at next month’s Africa Junior Championship to be held in Angola.
CFZ tournaments director, Aaron Banda said that the two players would be Zambia’s male and female representatives at the games whose winner would attain the International Mater (IM) status.
Banda said in an interview that the tournament would run from December 1 to 10 in Luanda with Kaoma and Yombwe expected to leave for Angola a day before the competition starts.
“We have a number of international tournaments coming up. We have the Africa Junior as well as the Africa Youth and the Africa Individual tournaments but so far we have picked two for the Africa junior. Michael Kaoma will be our male representative while Elastrida Yombwe will be our female envoy,” Banda said.
Kaoma took part in the recent Zambia Open and Heroes and Unity Chess championships where he finished with a decent 6.5 points on both occasions, which was just 2.5 less than eventual winner of the respective tournaments.
It was in the Zambia Open where he thrived after managing to beat some rated players like Linus Katebe and Kela Kaulule.
Winner of the tournament in each of the catgeories will become an IM while the second place finisher will be crowned Fide Master (FM) and the third placed will be given the title of Candidate Master (CM).
Banda said CFZ was confident that the two players would go for the top prize and get the needed titles as well as international ratings which will help them develop their young chess careers.
He said because of the tight finances at the CFZ, it would not afford sending an official to accompany the two but would benefit from having a Zambian chess arbiter officiating at the tournament.
Banda said CFZ will use Chanda Nsakanya, a former CFZ official who will be an arbiter at the competition, to help take care of the two players and help them in all logistics for the tournament.