Local top chess players were humbled and humiliated during Mdina International Open Chess tournament which Zambian, Godwin Phiri, won at Simama Hotel in Lilongwe on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The three-day tournament, which started on Friday, attracted 10 Zambians\u2014the first time for the tournament to welcome foreigners.<\/p>\n
World chess governing body, Fide, upgraded the tournament to the international level two years ago.<\/p>\n
During the action, Phiri scored eight points to beat compatriot and International Master, Chitumbo Mwali, who also scored eight points.<\/p>\n
The pair, just like in the rest of the ties, were separated using the Buchholz tie breaking system.<\/p>\n
South Africa-based Malawian, Joseph Mwale, salvaged home pride when he finished third with 6.5 points.<\/p>\n
Defending champion, Petros Mfune, was pushed to fourth position with six points whereas David Mawango ended on fifth position with 5.5 points.<\/p>\n
Another Zambian, Douglas Munenga, finished sixth with 5.5 while Malawians, Alfred Chimthere and Chiletso Chipanga, ended on position seven and eight, respectively after chalking 5.5 points apiece.<\/p>\n
The champion pocketed K360,000 with the runner-up receiving K215,000. The third-placed got K75,000.<\/p>\n
The only blemish on the Zambian champion, Phiri, was a defeat to Malawi\u2019s chess darling, Mwale, in the sixth round.<\/p>\n
Phiri, the self-styled greatest player in the world, thanked Mdina Business Solutions for sponsoring the event, which he described as tough.<\/p>\n
Mfune boasted to have not been beaten by a Malawian in the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the foreign-based players had not come, I would have been the champion again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The only lady participant in the event, Ellen Mpinganjira, was applauded for scoring against men. She was given a consolation prize.<\/p>\n
Mdina Business Solutions Representative, Grant Kankhulungo, hailed Chess Association of Malawi (Chessam) and the Central Region Chess League (CRCL) for organising the event.<\/p>\n
Chessam Vice-President, Mark Chikoko, said the sponsorship will help local players to gain international exposure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Local top chess players were humbled and humiliated during Mdina International Open Chess tournament which Zambian, Godwin Phiri, won at Simama Hotel in Lilongwe on Sunday. The three-day tournament, which started on Friday, attracted 10 Zambians\u2014the first time for the tournament to welcome foreigners. World chess governing body, Fide, upgraded the tournament to the international […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":30461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30462,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30460\/revisions\/30462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}