The chess intercontinental championship which was held over the weekend between Africa, America, Asia and Europe did not yield good results for Africa after being in fourth place.
Three Batswana namely Besa Masaiti in the under 18 category, Ruth Otisitswe in the under 16 and Darius Banda in the under 12 boys participated in the tournament together with thirteen others to make team Africa. This was an online tournament due to covid 19 protocols.
There were 4 continents and a total number of six games were played.
Asia won the championship with 11 match points & 76 cumulative points, followed by Europe with 9 match points & 74.5 cumulative points, position 3 America with 4 match points & 29.5 match points & lastly Africa with no match points & 12 cumulative points.
According to Botswana Chess Federation (BCF) Mokwaledi Mokwadi Tingwane who is the secretary general, the system of play used was round Robin double matches with a total of 6 rounds, and each team or continent played the others 2 times with opposite colors.
“Time Control: 10 minutes + 2 seconds incremental, each team consisted of 16 boards, 8 boys (2 each under 12,14,16,18) as well as 8 girls (2 each under 12,14,16,18),” Tingwane explained.
He further added that the invitation from ACC (Africa Chess Confederation) came on Monday 5, which was quite a short notice looking at the fact that the championship was to be played on Saturday 10th October 2020, hence being a one-day event*
Moreover, Tingwane highlighted that players were based at Ave Maria in Gaborone, and used laptops to play unlike the normal way of physically facing their opponent across the table.
