By Yvonne Sakala –
GRANDMASTER title-chasing Zambian chess star, Andrew Kayonde on Thursday went into joint leadership of the ongoing 2016 African Individual Chess championship after beating International Master (IM) Arthur Ssegwanyi in a fifth round game.
The 2016 African Individual Chess championship is taking place in Uganda with the leaders on four points from five rounds.
Kayonde, whose start ranking is seventh at the tournament, is in joint first position with three other players including the Egyptian pair of Ahmed Adly and Essam El Gindy who are both Grand Masters (GM) as well as Algeria’s IM Adlane Arab.
To reach this far, the Zambian chess wizard won his first two games against IM Maurice Soares of Angola and Simon Gonza of Uganda before a loss to IM to Adlane Arab of Algeria.
He then beat Angola’s IM Pedro Aderito in the fourth round and the fifth round game against Ssegwanyi.
In the sixth round, the Fide Master (FM) was by press time on Board-One taking on GM Adly, who is also top seed in his tournament and this turning out to be Kayonde’s biggest game of the competition.
In the ladies category, Women Fide Master (WFM) Lorita Mwango posted another draw in the competition this time around against Women International Master (WIM) Boikhutso Mudongo of Botswana.
Mwango, who has been putting up an impressive performance at the tournament, has lost just once, winning twice and drawing twice for her three points from five rounds.
Mwango opened the tournament by beating (WFM) Goretti Angolikin of Uganda before losing to Anzel Louscher in round two and recovered with a win over Amina Mezioud before two successive draws to Mwgan Van Niekerk of South Africa in round four and then with Mudongo in round five.
In the sixth round, Mwango was to take on WFM Eman Elansary of Egypt.