Mwale finishes 13th, Mphungu 17th in individual rapid chess at All Africa Games

Malawi’s chess geniuses FIDE Masters, Joseph Mwale and Gerald Mphungu finished on position 13 and 17 respectively after nine rounds of Individual Rapid chess at the All Africa Games in Rabat, Morocco on Tuesday.

Team Malawi chess game
FM Mwale doing what he knows best
FM Mphungu scored more points for Malawi

Mwale scored 5.5 points, just 2.5 points short of the eventual winner, Egyptian Grandmaster Ahmed Adly, who finished with 8.5. Mwale won five games, drew one and lost three while GM Adly won eight and drew one and earned a FIDE Individual Rapid rating of 2039.

Mphungu has finished with 5 points, 3.5 short of Adly and earned a FIDE rating of 2069.

Ahmed’s runner-up is another Egyptian GM Baseem Amin with 8 points and on third place was an unlikely winner, International Master (IM) Harold Wanyama from Uganda, who scored 6.5 points.

On 4th position was another GM Hicham Hamdouchi from Algeria with 6.5 points, 5th was Zambian IM Andrew Kayonde (6 points), 6th was IM David Silva from Angola (6), 7th was IM Oladapu Adu from Nigeria (6), 8th was IM Rodwell Makoto from Zimbabwe (6) and 9th was IM Stanley Chumfwa from Zambia (6).

Sharing on 5.5 points with Mwale were Algeria GM Bilel Bellahcene on 10th position, Algerian IM Adlane Arab on 11th, IM Pedro Aderito on 13th from Angola and IM Amir Zaibi from Tunisia on 14th.

On top of Mphungu but sharing on 5.5 points were two IMs, Mohammed Ali Boudriga from Tunisia and Arthur Ssegwanyi from Uganda.

For the ladies, Daisy Nkhoma came 25th from 42 players with 4 points while Tupokiwe Msukwa was 35th with 3 points.

Tea leader Leonard Sharra said the ladies haven’t done well as they are not experienced enough in Rapid chess.

“We need to put in more investment in the development of ladies chess. If our ladies were very strong enough, we could have finished on a better position than the 10th in the Rapid team event.

“On the contrary, the boys have been so impressive. In the individual Rapid, Gerald Mphungu beat two IMs Olapado Adu from Nigeria and Mohamed Tissir from Morocco while Joseph defeated Zambian IM  Stanley Chunfwa and drew against another Zambian IM Andrew Kayonde.

“As you are aware, an International Master is just one-step away from being Grandmaster and this shows that our boys are getting there. If we can join our hands together, CHESSAM, Sports Council, Malawi Olympic Committee (MOC) and the government by investing in chess, Malawi can bring the medals that are eluding us by a whisker,” Sharra said.

Team Malawi finished on position 10 out of 20 on the overall team Rapid rounds. Overall FM Gerald Mphungu scored more points for Malawi.

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