ENPASSENT DOMINATES THE CHESS BOARD
Wins league title third time in a row
The Debswana Chess League recently came to an expected ending as Enpassent Chess Club won the title for a record third time in a row after fending off some competition from Young Grand Masters and Chess Motifs clubs. To clinch the title, Enpassent collected 33 match points and 102.5 game points while runners up Young Grand Masters could only manage 30 match points and 99.5 game points. On the other hand, Chess Motifs, who came into this last games trailing in position 4 managed to put in some solid performance and ended up finishing third with 27 match points and 90.5 game points.
For their efforts, Enpassent walked away with a floating trophy and P13 500 prize money after the mobilization fee of P1500 was deducted. Just like in the past matches, Enpassent bought bring their high game to the league this past weekend, sweeping through to win 6 of their last games, only dropping points from a draw against Ramotswa Chess Club. Following the conclusion this left the champions with a very good record of 16 wins and 1 draw from the whole season campaign, putting an icing on the cake for their third record title triumph.
According to Enpassent player, CM Thabo Gumpo, they had a strategy and were well prepared for this league. “It was hard but we managed to achieve this title. From the onset we were among the leading pack but while we maintained a good record other teams lost matches. It wasn’t easy but due to the dedication of team members and our commitment to the league we managed to defend our title. For us, we just considered this league like normal
open tournaments where we play 7-9 rounds in one weekend and as such the league being compressed didn’t affect us that much. The only challenge was travelling because most of us stay out of Gaborone.”
Although Enpassent was winning their third title in a row ever since the league commenced in 2018, there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel as other 16 teams are trying to wrestle power.
For a debutant team like Young Grand Masters finishing with a silver medal is a sign that Enpassent is not having it easy. Same thing can be said by Chess Motifs, which was registered in 2019 but managed to finish a record third on their second season. Ramotswa, who at one point were in competition for a podium position, improved from last season’s 11th position finish to 4th spot this year.
“Yes, the competition is very stiff, it’s not like we are having it easy or have best players as compared to other teams. When you look at a club like Chess Motifs, they have good players who are also experienced in the game. So I will say what works for us is team work and dedicated
players,” he said.
For her part, Botswana Chess Federation (BCF) Public Relations Director Kutlwano Tatolo said they are happy that they managed to finish the league though there were hiccups. “I can’t say this league was a 100 percent success because initially our plan was to finish it in four months but now it has been completed after nine months due to lockdowns.
There has been time, travel and financial constraint on us because on the federation side we had to pay for extra rooms from our own coffers as we didn’t want to reduce the prize money. One other thing is we had promised Debswana that some of the games were going to be played in Orapa but due to Covid-19 people who travel to Orapa have to go through a 2 day mandatory quarantine so we couldn’t stage games there.
Th e sp ons o r wa s ve r y understanding on that one. But it’s been a financial burden on clubs from as far as Maun, Orapa and Francistown since now games were confined to Gaborone,” she said, expressing hope that Debswana will renew the sponsorship next year.