By SHAMAOMA MUSONDA –
ZAMBIA hit peak form and roared to victories at the ongoing 2014 World Chess Olympiads in Tromsø, Norway where both the men and women team won their round five games.
The women team that started poorly with two straight losses, recorded their third win on the trot with their latest victims being South Korea whom they defeated 3-1.
The Lorita Mwango captained team drew two games and won the other two for a 3-1 win which was as in the previous round against Botswana and means no player from the Zambian side has lost a game in three rounds.
In this game against South Korea, Mwango, on board-one, drew against Chengjia Wang and the outcome was the same on board-two where Constance Mbatha played Hakyung Lim.
But Linda Hamoonga lit up the Zambian camp win a win over Yeonhee Cho with Yvonne Saina completing the job and giving Zambia a convincing 3-1 win by beating Cho Garam.
Mbatha and Hamoonga have not lost a game since the opening round 4-0 loss Zambia suffered at the hands Switzerland who are now joint third. This win pushes Zambia to six points, four adrift of joint leaders in China, Russia and Hungary.
In round-six, the Zambian women team placed South American giants Argentina, boasting of a Grand Master (GM) and three International Master’s (IM), on their line up.
Meanwhile, in the men’s category, it was a sweet recovery after suffering round four losses as Zambia defeated Kyrgyzstan 2.5-1.5 with the last two boards delivering the win after tough results on the first two.
IM Stanley Chumfwa was beaten on board-one by Semetey Tologontegin, a FIDE Master (FM) but Daniel Jere drew with fellow IM, Asyl Abdyjapr before wins on the last two boards ensured victory.
Richmond Phiri defeated B. Takyrbashev while Kelvin Chumfwa checkmated Melis Mamatov for a victory that also gives the Zambia men team six points, three off the leading pack of seven countries.
Just like the women, team, the men got themselves tough draws in Round-Six where they will face Spain, who are ranked 17th in the world and brandishing four Grand Masters.
