Malawi chess team confident for the world chess Olympiad competition

Chess Association of Malawi(CHESSAM) has expressed confidence that the Malawi chess national team will do wonders in the forthcoming world chess Olympiad competition, looking at how the preparations are being conducted.

Malawi Chess team is poised to participate in the 45th edition of the prestigious world Olympiad biennial event slated in Budapest, Hungry from September 10th to 23rd this year.

Publicity secretary for the association, Francisco Mwangupili, said all the preparetions for the country to compete at the event are in place.

” We are committed to ensuring that the national team is well prepared through intensive training sessions and player welfare initiatives,” he said

He said that to bolster the team’s readiness, the association has among others, organized several training sessions where the national players will compete against selected top players in the country from this weekend in Lilongwe.

” Additionally, players are receiving virtual training from a grand master appointed by the international chess federation(FIDE), a privilege extended to many other countries,” he said

Currently, Mwangupili said a total of 198 teams are registered in the open category, and 184 teams are registered in the women’s category.

Mwangupili said in line with training and player welfare, the association has also scheduled a corporate chess tournament at Ammalyris Hotel in Blantyre on August 31st this year.

” For this tournament, companies are invited to register teams of five players plus two reserve players for a fee of K250,000 for participation,” he said

According to Mwangupili, the Malawi national chess team(open) will feature Josephy Mwale, Chiletso Chipanga, Petros Mfune, Precious Kamwendo, and George Mwale.

The publicity secretary added that the women’s team will comprise Susan Namangale, Tupokiwe Msukwa, Linda Jambo, Anne Simwaba and the youngest woman ever to qualify for the national team through the national championship -Rachel Jayloss.

He further said the delegation also includes CHESSAM president Mpilo Mizere, Jonathan Ibrahim, Leornard Mbwana(captain-open) and Gift HowaHowa(captain -women).

The chess Olympiad, a biennial event, was last held in 2022 in Chennai, India.