Junior chess players shine at African Championships

Youth Championships held in Lusaka, Zambia.
Moyo and Zengeni were part of an 18-member team that travelled to Zambia. They won a silver and bronze medal respectively. The championships were held from December 9 to 19 and the team came back on Tuesday.
The event featured nine countries – South Africa, Egypt, Zambia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Angola, Botswana, Nigeria and Malawi. Zimbabwe finished on fifth position with 2 medals.
Moyo came second behind South Africa’s Varden Trevelyn in the boys Under-10 age group while Zengeni settled for third position in the girls Under-16 competition.
He attributed his success to adequate preparations ahead of the championships.
“The tournament was tough but we prepared for the event with my father. We went to small tournaments for exposure. I played nine games but my best game was against Egypt’s Adham Kandel, he was the strongest he won most of his games and people thought I was going to lose but I won.
“I then lost to Trevelyn because I was tired but I am happy I won a silver medal,” said Moyo.
Zengeni said the championships are a good platform for junior players to get exposure.
“I think we did better than last year. We get exposure by going to such events and it helps the players to improve. I used to play chess a lot at home when I was still in Primary School and I started to taking part in tournaments when I was in Secondary School, I am very excited,” said Zengeni.
Chairman for Zimbabwe Schools Chess Association, Joseph Moyo said the team has been improving since they started competing in the championships in 2009 when they were introduced by the Chess Union.
“The event was introduced in 2009 when the Chess Union decided to promote chess at grassroots level.
“This is the third time we are going to this level of competition. In our first appearance we finished on the bottom of the tables. Last year it was a disaster again, we were last with no medals. We had to go back to the drawing board, our shortfall came from lack of technical preparedness.
“This time we chose our team earlier and we had very serious competitions in between as part of our preparations,” said Moyo.
Moyo said the previous championships played an important role in exposing their players to competitive action.
“Our players were not used to long matches and we had to work on that and ensure that our junior players were exposed to the correct aspects of the game. Exposure was critical in this competition. This time there was great improvement on the Zimbabwe contingent with most of our players managing to score an average of four points.
“From this we are saying there is a lot of potential in our players like six-year-old Refiloe Mudodo who finished on fifth position, we just need to further develop and nurture the talent,” said Moyo.