{"id":69676,"date":"2018-09-26T10:18:52","date_gmt":"2018-09-26T08:18:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=69676"},"modified":"2018-09-26T10:18:53","modified_gmt":"2018-09-26T08:18:53","slug":"poor-start-for-chess-squad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2018\/09\/26\/poor-start-for-chess-squad\/","title":{"rendered":"Poor start for chess squad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>By Mphatso Malidadi: <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_63485\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-63485\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/gerald-mphungu.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-63485\" src=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/gerald-mphungu-300x134.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"134\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/gerald-mphungu-300x134.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/gerald-mphungu-768x342.jpg 768w, https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/gerald-mphungu.jpg 820w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-63485\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">MIND-GAMES\u2014Mphungu (left)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Malawi national men\u2019s and women\u2019s chess teams started the 2018 Olympiad on a poor note after losing in Batumi, Georgia, Europe, on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Malawi senior men\u2019s side lost to Brazil 4-0 whereas Luxembourg beat the women\u2019s team by a similar margin.<\/p>\n<p>Chess Association of Malawi (Chessam) Publicity Secretary, Alfred Chimthere, said first-round games are tough because top teams are paired against minnows such as Malawi.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cIn this case, Brazil had grandmasters on all the four boards. It was basically a \u2018David versus Goliath\u2019 battle in the first-round. So, it was always going to be difficult [for Malawi] but as we progress, we hope to improve,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Chimthere said they hope that some players would earn new title norms.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cWe expect two players from the men\u2019s team to get an IM (International Master) norm, and untitled players such as George Mwale and Richard Chiona to get at least Candidate Master norm. In the ladies\u2019 category, it is only Linda Chaononga who is titled so we expect others to achieve a similar feat,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Meanwhile, Chimthere has disclosed that a well-wisher donated K18 million to cater for the team\u2019s trip to Georgia for the competition.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cWe were sponsored by a well-wisher from Russia, who does not want to be named for now. The well-wisher is a friend to former Chessam president Kezzie Msukwa,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Men\u2019s team comprises Fide Master Gerald Mphungu, Candidate Masters Joseph Mwale, Chiletso Chipanga, George Mwale, Chiona and the ladies squad has Woman Fide Master Chaononga, Ellen Mpinganjira Desiderata Nkhoma and Annie Simwaba.<\/p>\n<p>Thirteen-year-old Simwaba replaced Tupokiwe Msukwa, who withdrew from squad after her institution, Chancellor College, failed to grant her permission to travel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Mphatso Malidadi: Malawi national men\u2019s and women\u2019s chess teams started the 2018 Olympiad on a poor note after losing in Batumi, Georgia, Europe, on Monday. Malawi senior men\u2019s side lost to Brazil 4-0 whereas Luxembourg beat the women\u2019s team by a similar margin. Chess Association of Malawi (Chessam) Publicity Secretary, Alfred Chimthere, said first-round [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69676","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=69676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69680,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69676\/revisions\/69680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}