Chess training to resume

LIMBA MUPETAMI

WINDHOEK



The president of the Namibia Chess Federation, Charles Eichab, said they will soon announce when chess training will start again.

This after the Namibia Sports Commission announced that non-contact sports, such as athletics, archery, chess, cricket, cycling, swimming, golf, gymnastics and motorsport, have the go-ahead to resume training.

All sport had been on hiatus since late March due to the coronavirus state of emergency restrictions.

However, Eichab said they still have wait for directives on when they can organise competitions.

“We have to sit this week and plan accordingly. They said only training must take place so we have to see how we can organise that,” he added.



Keeping busy

Local chess player Israel Shilongo said the news has been received well.

Despite the fact that they could compete with opponents from all over the world in online tournaments during the lockdown, he said it is difficult to measure improvement this way.

Shilongo added that online competitions are much faster (three minutes) due to time control, thus avoiding cheating.

He mentioned that he took part in a free African online chess championship, where he finished in the 718th position.

He only competed for 45 minutes instead of the required 90, and network issues hindered his competition process, he said.

“Time would run out as you struggle to connect,” Shilongo added.

Namibia's chess master Dante Beukes, who also took part in the online competition, finished 33rd of 1 377 participants.