BEING a chess genius that is capable of standing tall-to-tall and fight tooth-and-nail against predictable and unpredictable opponents requires great tactical vision, focus, uninterrupted concentration and a lion-hearted will to win games.
From time immemorial, chess has produced a number of history makers and record holders around the globe on whom the various generations have always looked up to, to make a mark in the game.
In this edition, local chess brain CHANDA NSAKANYA looks at the perfect score in the sport.
It is a rare feat in top-class chess for a player to complete a tournament or match with a 100 percent score but Zambia’s Phylis Namasiku Mwilola has joined a list of record setters that include 18th century chess masters William Pollock, Briton Henry Atkins, Gustav Neumann and Emanuel Lasker in achieving victory with a perfect score.
Calling it a once in a life time achievement, a modest Mwilola pulled off her careers best performance at the 2015 Africa Amateur Individual Chess Championship in Maputo, Mozambique last week.
The 24-year-old Zambian Women Candidate Master (WCM) was crowned champion in the women section after producing a stunning perfect score of seven wins out of seven games with a round to spare.
Mwilola’s splendid performance earned her a personal invitation to participate in the 2016 World Amateur Chess championship with paid for board and lodging expenses.
She made a mark on the 2015 Africa Amateur Individual Chess Championship that will be best remembered for her triumph with a 100 per cent score.
Some of the chess gurus that achieved victory with a perfect score include
German’s Neumann.
Neumann was one of the best chess players in the world and attained a +34 –0 =0; first perfect score, in pole position at the Berlin championship.
Zimbabwe’s Robert Gwaze scored 9–0 on first board for Zimbabwe at the 35th Olympiad in 2002. At 15, Gwaze was a Zimbabwe National Chess Champion at both junior and senior levels.
He won the African Junior Championships in Kenya in 1998, and got the International Master (IM) norm.
Probably his greatest success was at the 2002 Chess Olympiad tournament in Bled, Slovenia when he achieved a rare perfect score, winning all nine of his games on first board for Zimbabwe.
Russia’s ValentinaGunina with the titles Grandmaster (GM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM) won the Women’s section of the 2010 Moscow Blitz tournament with a 17/17 score.
Wesley So, a Filipino chess grandmaster representing the United States is a former chess prodigy, who became the youngest player to pass 2600 Elo rating In October 2008, breaking the record held by Magnus Carlsen.
He scored 9/9 in the 2011 Inter-Provincial Chess Team Championship, with a performance rating of 3037, won the gold medal in men’s blitz at the SEA Games 2011 at Indonesia with a score of 9/9 and a rating performance of 3183, and won the 2013 Calgary International Blitz Championship with a score of 9/9.
A British-Russian chess player Vera Menchik, who gained renown as the world’s first women’s chess champion also competed in chess tournaments with some of the world’s leading male chess masters, defeating many of them, including future World Champion Max Euwe.
She won four consecutive Women’s World Chess Championship tournaments with perfect scores, a total of 45 games (8–0 at Prague 1931, 14–0 at Folkestone 1933, 9–0 at Warsaw 1935, and 14–0 at Stockholm 1937).
Slovenian Olympic team player AlexanderBeliavsky is noted for his uncompromising style of play and for his classical opening repertoire, including openings such as the Queen’s Gambit, Ruy Lopez, French Defence and the Two Knights Defence.
Beliavsky, who won the World Junior Chess Championship in 1973 and the USSR Chess Championship four times (in 1974, 1980, 1987 and 1990), is another player to have won matches via a perfect score.
Being part of the history books of chess is no mean achievement for Mwilola especially that Chess is predominantly a male centered sport in Zambia, with the likes of Women Candidate Master (WCM) Epah Tembo and FIDE Master (FM) Lorita Mwango leading the charge on the women front.
The standard of play has greatly improved and several players are capable of playing against the highly rated players in the world.
Zambia has a rich reservoir of chess talent and the country is headed for more success in future tournament. Congratulations to Mwilola for her achievement! (The author of this article is a Chess Federation of Zambia (CFZ) deputy secretary)
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