Malawi finishes 19th in Africa after 2018 Chess Olympiad: Joseph Mwale 7th in Africa

The 43rd World Chess Olympiad wound up on Friday October 5 in the Eastern European city of Batumi in Georgia with Malawi finishing on 19th position in Africa and 136.

For this Olympiad, Joseph Mwale is on number 34 in the world and 7th in Africa after achieving over 75% score out of 10 games played. He missed the 0-4 loss against an all-grandmaster Brazil in their opening match after arriving late from his base in South Africa.

In their final game, Malawi men’s team lost to Malaysia 2.5-1.5 in which newly-crowned Fide Master (FM) Joseph Mwale won and fellow FM Gerald Mphungu drew. Candidate Master (CM) Chiletso Chipanga and newly-crowned CM George Mwale lost.

The ladies team lost to Nepal 3.5-0.5 that saw newly-crowned WCM Ellen Mpinganjira salvaging a draw while WM Linda Chaononga, Desiderata Nkhoma and Magret Ngugama lost.

Before the Batumi Olympiad, Malawi were at position 128 as a team but for individual titles they have progressed because three players earned new titles — CM Joseph Mwale into FM after accumulating 6.5 points out of nine games, becoming Malawi’s second FM after Gerald Mphungu, who attained his title in 2014 in Tromso, Norway.

His brother George Mwale and Ellen Mpinganjira, at 3.5 points out of 7 games, have attained the title of CM and WCM respectively. George Mwale joins the list of CM’s that has Chiletso Chipanga, Petros Mfune, Alfred Chimthere, Joseph Nyambalo and Paul Khuphwathea.

While Ellen Mpinganjira becomes a second woman to have a title for Malawi after WFM Jambo-Chaononga. Linda attained her WFM title in 2015 when Malawi hosted the Zone 4.3 tournament.

Chess Association of Malawi (Chessam) president Susan Namangale, who led the team, said the overall team performance has been good hence the titles obtained.

“It was a tough tournament because 185 countries across the world participated in the Olympiad with almost 1,500  players participating. Team Malawi’s performance was not bad and the playing level is improving greatly.

“The individual players performance is getting better and  we have the consolation that our players; Joseph, George and Ellen attained chess titles because these title are towards gaining the grandmaster title.

“It’s a great milestone for Malawi and we achieved one of the two objectives for this Olympiad,” she said.

Overall men’s team performance is 4 wins (3-1 v Guam; 2.5-1.5 v Cyprus; 3.5-0.5 v Jersey and 2-2 v Jordan).

They lost 6 (0-4 v Brazil; 0-2 v Mongolia; 0.5-3.5 v Belgium; 1-3 v Chinese Taipei, 1-3 v Barbados and 2.5-1.5 v Malaysia.

The ladies performance is 3 wins (2.5-1.5 v Rwanda; 3-1 v Seychelles; 3.5-0.5 v Mauritius and drew 2-2 with Namibia.

They lost 7 (0-4 v Luxemburg; 1.5-2.5 v Uganda; 0-4 v Ireland; 1-3 v Thailand;  0-4 v Botswana, 0-4 v Angola and 3.5-0.5 v Nepal.

Individual score card for men’s are CM Joseph Mwale (7.5 points out of 10); CM Chiletso Chipanga (3.5 points out of 10); George Mwale (3.5 points out of 8); FM Gerald Mphungu (3 points out of 10) and Richard Chiona (0.5 points out of 5).

For the ladies: Ellen Mpinganjira (4 points out of 8); Margret Ngugama (3 points out of 8); Desiderata Nkhoma  (3 points out of 10), WFM Linda Chaononga (2.5 points out of 10) and Annie Simwaba (1.5 points out of 8).

The FM title is attained by winning at least 66.66% (two thirds) of your first nine games in any FIDE rated) tournament and the CM title is attained by winning at least 50% of your first 7 games in any FIDE rated tournament.

Top in Africa and 22 in the world are Egypt, seconded by Zimbabwe (57), South Africa third (66), Nigeria 4th (74) and Sudan 6th (82). Overall, China won gold followed by USA on silver and Russia on bronze for men while the ladies champiobs were China with Ukraine on second and hosts Georgia on third.

Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :

Sharing is caring!