Botswana Chess Federation

thinking of turning the league into championships because traditionally league games are held during the last week of the month. In these remaining three months I don’t think we can squeeze in everything to finish the league more so that the league attracts a larger number of players. So considering the number of only 50 people due to Covid-19 protocols I don’t think it’s possible for us to continue with the old model of finishing the league.

A proposal has been put to the executive committee that we might change the league to club championships so that we conclude and look forward to 2021 season,” said Tingwane.

The league is powered by mining giant, Debswana, who have injected an amount of P127 000 every season since 2018. Meanwhile, BCF remains committed to concluding other tournaments which were lined up for this year. BOTASH Open also remain on the cards following the announcement of a whopping P60 000 sponsorship from Botswana Ash, a month ago. Botswana Open Chess Championship was cancelled last week following travel restrictions, however, BCF intends to set a new date for the tourney this month.

“We are optimistic that we will host it (Botswana Open) end of October because players really want to play.

They have been playing online tournaments for a long time so this time around they want something physical. We have zonal team championships from the 16th until the 18th so we are intending to slot Botswana Open a week after that,” he said.