Chipanga finishes impressive 6th position at World Chess Amateurs start in Italy 

Malawi’s National Chess Champion, Chiletso Chipanga, who is the Africa Amateurs gold medalist, finished an impressive 6th position out of 49 participants during the World Amateurs Chess Championship which was played last in Cagliari, Italy.

Out of nine rounds he played, he won six to gather six points, just one point behind eventual winner, Singh Arvider Preet of Indonesia, who had 7 points together with Galavato Miguel Angel of Colombia, who came second.

On third position was Gunbayar Myagmarsuren from Mongolia, 4th was Bigabylov Zhuban from Kazakhstan while Locci Damiano from Italy took 5th. All three tied on 6.5 points.

In round five, Chipanga beat eventual champion Preet and he lost mainly to top seeds, Gunbayar Myagmarsuren from Mongolia, Galavito Miguel Angel from Colombia and Bigabylov Zhuban from Kazakhstan.

He beat Zhunussow Bibek from Kazakhstan, Caetano Hugo Mendonca from Brazil, Ehab Mohamed of Egypt, Preet and Ibba Isacco from Italy.

The Candidate Master’s international rating is at 2126 after his performance rating of 2266 with a Fide rating of 33.6.

“We are over the moon over this brilliant achievement,” said Chess Association of Malawi (Chessam) publicity secretary, Makhosi Nyirenda.

“Number 6 at world level in any category is not a a mean acchievement and we applaud our ambassador for a  job brilliantly done.”

This is the second time for a Malawi chess player to participate at the World Amateurs — the first being Fide Master Gerald Mphungu in 2014 in Singapore where he ended on position 14.

Chiletso stunned everyone at the African Amateur that took place in Livingstone,  Zambia last month when he won the gold medal with a round to spare, booking himself a ticket to World Amateurs in Italy.

He was declared champion after winning eight out of nine rounds, a point clear of his runner-up, Leslie Chikuse of Zambia, whom he had also beaten in another round.

This is not the first time that the 2006 and 2007 Malawi Junior Champion has represented the country. He has has the record of qualifying for World Chess Olympiad the most number of times — in 2008 (Germany), 2010 (Russia), 2012 (Turkey), 2014 (Norway), 2016 (Azerbaijan) and 2018 (Georgia).

At junior level he has been to Africa Juniors in Angola in 2008 and in Botswana in 2006.

This makes him Malawi’s most capped player and he is Malawi’s Olympiad all time leading scorer and earned the title of Candidate Master 2008 in Germany.

He is the 2018 and 2014 Malawi Champion and has been its runner-up in 2008, 2012 and 2016.

Other titles include being Mdina Champion in 2012, Muleso Mphande Open Champion 2015, Paul-Mike Champion (2013 and 2015).

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