By ELIAS CHIPEPO –
NATIONAL champion Andrew Kayonde suffered a second round defeat that allowed Oscar Mwenya to take command of the 2015 Special Christmas Invitational Chess tournament being held at the Olympic Youth Development Centre (OYDC) in Lusaka.
Mwenya picked up two victories over Timothy Kabwe and Leslie Chikuse and two draws against Kelvin Chumfwa and Richmond Phiri to lead the standings with three points after four rounds played.
Kayonde, the highest ranked player at the tournament is on 2.5 points same with Kabwe, who beat him in the second round, while Chumfwa is on two points with Kondwani Gondwe and Chikuse tied on 1.5 points and Tabala Simasiku on 0.5 points.
After losing his second round tie, Kayonde, who beat Phiri in round one, recovered in the third round to beat Gondwe before he was held to a draw by bottom placed Tabala and was set to play undefeated Mwenya in the fifth round.
Second placed Kabwe started his campaign with a win over Gondwe and Kayonde before losing to Mwenya in the third round and forced a draw against Chumfwa and was paired against Chikuse in the fifth round.
Phiri was set to take on Tabala while Chumfwa had a date against Gondwe.
Meanwhile, Prince Mulenga was leading the B Section after the fifth round of games played followed by Godwin Phiri on four points while five players, Richard Mwansa, Alistair Chismploa, Erick Siyamayuwa,
Evans Chitola and Justin Daka are on 3.5 points.
A bunch of six players were tied on three points and these were Bangili Mulenga, Barnabas Chitula, Emmanuel Mubukwanu, Mambwe Mwansa, Alinaswe Sichone and Geoffrey Luanja.