By Yvonne Sakala –
MORE than 40 chess players will today jostle for the top prize in the Copperbelt Closed chess tournament slated for the Copperbelt University (CBU) cafeteria in Kitwe.
Ndola-based chess wizard Boniface Ng’onga will go in as defending champion and will have to fight off competition from among other highly rated players including International Master (IM) Chitumbo Mwali.
The tournament will be a six-round championship and will have the Open section as well as the women’s category, with the winners in each category expected to walk away with K500.
The second and third winners will pocket K400 and K300, respectively.
Copperbelt Chess League Association (CCLA) tournament director Tedius Lungu said the association was taking the tournament seriously as it was a FIDE rated event which meant a lot to the players.
Lungu said the association was working hard to ensure that the sport was revived on the Copperbelt, adding that holding such types of competitions would help the clubs in the region not to close due to non-functioning.
He said it was from such competitions where the association also raised money for the running of the organisation, adding that they were expecting the tournament to be highly competitive looking at the number of entries and the calibre of players.
“This tournament is important as we are in the process of spearheading the sport on the Copperbelt. We have had clubs dying a natural death because of lack competitions, so this is one way of keeping the players and clubs active and also uniting them,” Lungu said.
He encouraged the participating players to put in their best in the competition and ensure that they deliver genuine results at the end of each round.