Malawi national chess teams have signed off in style at the 44th World Chess Olympiad in Chennai, India beating African opponents in the final round of the tournament played Tuesday.
The men’s side cruised past Ghana, walloping them 4-0 with the ladies’ team beating Liberia by 2.5 to 1.5 points.
Team Malawi captured with government representative retired Lieutenant General Clement Kafuwa (far right) at the closing ceremony yesterday.
This means the men’s team has won five games and lost six while the ladies have Registered four wins, two draws and five losses.
The wins against the West African sides saw the number of titles for Malawi increasing from two to four as Stanford Chiwambo and Tupokiwe Msukwa secured Candidate Master and Woman Candidate Master titles from their respective victories. This adds up to the Fide Master and Woman Candidate Master titles secured by Alfred Chimthere and Martha Kapalamula on Monday.
Head of delegation for Team Malawi Gilton Nkumbwa has hailed the performance by both teams, describing it as the best show by Malawi teams in all Olympiad tournaments Malawi has participated in.
“Our records show that this is the best performance but still we are not satisfied because there is more room for improvement.
“Our target was to take our position to the top 100 in the Open Section but this has not been achieved as we remain stuck on position 117” said Nkumbwa.
The team leaves Chennai today and is expected back home Thursday.
