Six to make African chess finals
By Sports Reporter
THE Chess Federation of Zambia (CFZ) will this weekend pick a six-member squad to represent Zambia in the premier 2005 African Individual championships set for Lusaka’s Holiday Inn Hotel.
CFZ president Lewis Ncube said in Lusaka yesterday that the squad would be selected after this weekend’s NICO Insurance sponsored Zambia Closed championships.
Ncube said the top three players from the main event and the women section at the Zambia Closed would qualify to represent the country in the continental competition.
He said International Master Amon Simutowe, currently studying economics and finance at the University of Texas in the USA, had already qualified to the continental event which Zambia would be hosting for the first time from October 21 to November 1 at Holiday Inn’s Zango Conference Centre.
Ncube said Simutowe qualified to the continental event following his participation in the previous three editions of the World championships where he finished among the top six players in each of the competitions.
The qualification criterion was extended to all of the continent’s active international and grand masters.
Egyptian International Master El Gindy is the African individual chess champion after winning the title in 2003 in Abuja, Nigeria.
Ncube said the African individual chess championship was a qualification event for the 2005 World Chess Cup to be held in December.
World Chess Federation (FIDE) will also contribute a total of $32,000 (over K150 million) towards the prize money for the African championships.
