By SHAMAOMA MUSONDA –
THE Zambia women chess team bounced back to winning ways, beating Tunisia at the on-going World Chess Olympiads in Tromso, Norway as the men’s squad this time around suffered defeat, a contrast to previous round results.
The round eight games saw the women led by Lorita Mwango, record a hard fought 2.5-1.5 win off African rivals Tunisia to end a poor streak of two straight losses to register four wins and four defeats at the competition.
It was a sweet victory, especially that it all came down to one board after three other boards had all ended square with attention and pressure moving to Constance Mbatha on board two.
On board one, Mwango drew with fellow Fide Master (FM) Amina Matoussi with Linda Hamoonga and Yvonne Saina’s matches also ending in a stalemate against Amira Marzouk and Najla Krifa respectively.
But Mbatha showed her class by defeating Amani Matoussi to hand Zambia the win that takes them to eight points and among Africa’s leaders.
In the next round, Zambia plays another tough match against El Salvador which boasts better rated players with Mwango set to play Lorena Zepeda on board-one with round eight hero Mbatha facing Ingrid Sanchez.
Linda Hamoonga plays Gabriela Avelar and Yvonne Saina meeting fellow unrated opponent in Alcira Garcia.
Meanwhile, it was a terrible day for the men on the boards, losing 4-0 to Colombia that lined up a Grand Master and better rated International Masters (IM) and will be hoping for an improved showing in round-nine against Syria, a match they should easily win.
The Zambian team has rested Daniel Jere for the Syria match with Stanley Chumfwa on board-one playing fellow IM Basher Iyti with Chitumbo Mwali on board two up against Hasan Omrani with Richmond Phiri playing Khaled Akhras while Kelvin Chumfwa meets War Al-Tarbosh.