Zambia Closed Chess Championships

Zambia Closed Chess tourney on
By Sports Reporter

THE Chess Federation of Zambia (CFZ) will today hold the 2011 Zambia Closed Chess championships at the Olympic Youth Development Centre (OYDC) in Lusaka.

CFZ president Lewis Ncube said in Lusaka yesterday that in addition to the main event, the tournament would incorporate the youth age group sections in line with the categories of the African Youth championships.

The championship’s main event would be for the 2011 Zambia Closed chess title while the age group event would produce the national individual champions for the year.

The national youth age group champions would automatically qualify to represent Zambia at the 2011 African Youth Chess Championships set for the Baobab College in Lusaka from December 10.

Ncube said all the event sections of the 2011 Zambia Closed Chess championships would be FIDE rated, allowing CFZ to commence a FIDE approved database.

Ncube said the tournament would be played over nine rounds starting from today until Monday with the time control being one hour for each player with no increment, for completion of the game.

The entry fee will be K50, 000, 00 each for the Championship section and K20,000each for the youth age group section.

Registration started on Monday at OYDC and is expected to close tomorrow at 14.00 hours, and players have been advised that all entry fee payments must be made by the close of registration.

The deadline for the close of registration applies to both the championship section and the youth age group section while pairings for Round One will be available by 18.00 hours yesterday.

However, all players registering after the deadline would be required to pay a penalty fee of K 20,000.00 and will not be paired for Round One and but will only be allowed to enter the tournament in the Second Round.

Ncube said while the age group champions automatically qualify to represent Zambia at the youth championships the top three players in each category also receive first consideration by the CFZ when selecting the country’s representatives to international age group tournaments until the age group national championships for 2012.

CFZ has invited participants from Government schools through the Zambia Schools Sports Associations and the Basic Schools Sports Associations, the independent private schools through the Independent Schools Association of Zambia (ISAZ) and community schools through the Zambia Open Community Schools (ZOCS).

All school organisations sending participants to both the championship and youth age group sections of the Zambia Closed championships will bear their own travel, upkeep and entry costs.

The federation will provide sets and digital timers and participating schools have been requested to bring their own chess sets and timers in an event the attendance overwhelms the available equipment.

Source: http://www.times.co.zm