The Local chess landscape was full of interesting tournaments, with some individuals taking part in international championships.
\nSome championships such as Mdina and Divine Planet made headlines.
\nIt was also an elective year for Chess Association of Malawi (Chessam) regional affiliates.
\nRegional elections
\nThe chess year started with regional elections for Chessam affiliates.
\nIn the Northern Region, Stanley Mtuwa, who promised to develop chess in the region, beat Isaac Mumba to claim the post of chairperson.
\nIn the Southern Region, Wasoka Chirwa, with the slogan \u2018I want to make SRCL [Southern Region Chess League] great again\u2019, overwhelmingly beat Bright Nthala to win the post of chairperson.
\nIn Central Region, Moses Mtumbuka was also voted chairperson after defeating Petros Mfune.
\nDivine Planet
\nEarly July, Central Region hosted a K2 million international tournament called Divine Planet Africa Global Tours and Travel, which attracted Mozambicans and Zambians.
\nHowever, it was Zambian International, Master, Gillian Bwalya, who won the tournament with a convincing 8.5 points out of 9.
\nMalawi\u2019s blemishes were spared in the ladies\u2019 category when Ellen Mpinganjira emerged the winner.
\nZone 4.3 chess
\nMalawi was represented by Woman Fide Master, Linda Jambo, at the Zone 4.3 Chess Championship held in Botswana.
\nWell-wishers sourced funds for her trip and she did not disappoint.
\nJambo returned home with reasonably good results. She was commended for her efforts in making the trip.
\nMdina Open
\nIn August, daggers were drawn in the Mdina Malawi Open in Mzuzu City.
\nLocal and foreign players, including Zambians, took part in the event.
\nThis time, it was, again, Zambian International Master, Chitumbo Mwali, who won the event.
\nAfrica chess
\nMalawi had representatives at the Africa Individual Schools Chess Championship held in Zimbabwe.
\nYebo Sanga, Tina Kumwenda, Daniel Khondowe and Kezzie Msukwa junior represented Malawi.
\nThe up-and-coming players were sponsored by their parents and escorted by one parent, Yona Sanga, to Zimbabwe.
\nMalawi\u2019s best was Yebo Sanga on position seven out of 24 participants under-11 category.
\nSatellite tourneys
\nChessam also commended Daisy Nkhoma for participating in the Henry Chilufya Memorial Tournament held in Mansa, Zambia, at her own expense.
\nThe Malawi ladies International finished on position six.
\nChessam also commended Joseph Mwale and Richard Mbedza for participating in the Swaziland Open, and it hailed Joseph Mwale for tying on first position with Zambian, Musatwe Simutowe, in one of the events.
\nBatumi Olympiad
\nAs the year is drawing to a close, Chessam is administering the Batumi Olympiad Regional Qualifiers.
\nSix players from each region have qualified to join 14 seeded players, including active Malawian players in the diaspora, at the qualifiers scheduled from December 29 2017 to January 2 2018.
\nTop three players in ladies\u2019 and open categories would join seeded Fide Master, Gerald Mphungu, and Woman Fide Master, Jambo, in the qualifiers for the 43rd World Chess Olympiad in Batumi, Georgia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Local chess landscape was full of interesting tournaments, with some individuals taking part in international championships. Some championships such as Mdina and Divine Planet made headlines. It was also an elective year for Chess Association of Malawi (Chessam) regional affiliates. Regional elections The chess year started with regional elections for Chessam affiliates. In the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":58048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58047","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\/58047","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=58047"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58049,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58047\/revisions\/58049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}