Chess tourney reg in progress

REGISTRATION for the penultimate Bulawayo Chess Association (BCA) competition of the year dubbed “Bulawayo Candidates” to be held at Founders High School on Saturday opened yesterday.

The winner of the tournament will earn a ticket to compete in next month’s Bulawayo Championship that features the city’s top 10 players.

Moses Mutipforo, BCA spokesman, said nine players, including Bulawayo Championship title holder Ntokozo Mangena, had qualified for next month’s event.

The other eight are Nkulumane Chess Club’s trio of Tapiwa Jele; Khumbulani Chirwa and Valentine Nkoma; the Nust duo of Kudakwashe Sibanda and Castro Sibanda as well as the ZRP Bulawayo trio of Sifiso Ncube, Tarcision Chikandi and Mthokozisi Mpofu.

“All the nine players that have qualified for the Bulawayo Championship have been ruled out of the Founders High School competition. Registration has started and we hope to get slightly above 100 participants, with most coming on Friday. The winner of the Bulawayo Candidates will proceed to the Bulawayo Championship set for next month,” said Mutipforo.

Some of the top players set to battle it out for the remaining single slot for the Bulawayo Championship are Phakamani Sithole of Nkulumane, who won this year’s Africa Day Open at Montrose, Westgate’s Clarence Ndlovu, Nigel Mabiza of Nust as well as ZRP Bulawayo’s Farai Janyure.

The Bulawayo Chess Club duo of Tony Sianyezu and Dennis Mashukudu will also be in contention.

Meanwhile, BCA will hold a workshop for primary teachers at the weekend.

“Our Bulawayo Candidates competition will run alongside a training programme for primary school teachers, whom we believe will play a key role in developing chess at the grassroots level. The teachers will do arbitration for the development section, which is part of BCA’s capacity development initiatives,” said Mutipforo.