Mwali aims for African chess crown, gm title
By Oliver Shalala | Updated: 05 Oct,2014 ,13:46:57
INTERNATIONAL Master Chitumbo Mwali says he now wants to win the African Individual Championshipship in December after winning the 2014 Botswana Open last week.
And Mwali, who arrived back in Zambia on Thursday, says he is very happy to have won the Botswana Open as it has been long since he won a major tournament.
Meanwhile, Mwali says his ultimate goal is to to be a grandmaster in the future.
“My ultimate aim is becoming the 4th black grandmaster in the world. My short-term goals are to win 2014 Zambia Open in October and then the African Individual Chess Championship in December,” Mwali said in an interview. “My performance at the 2014 World Chess Olympiad in Tromso in Norway was below par. The lesson was the reinforcement of my belief that ‘the only way to get smarter is by playing a smarter opponent’. Tromso was a good experience because I played strong grandmasters from France, Spain and other countries and when winning the Botswana Open, I played some good IMs and this makes me better.”
He said Botswana was his lucky ground as he won his first major tournament – the African under-20 Chess Championship – in Gaborone in 2006.
On playing one of his best friends, Kelvin Chumfwa, in round eight and having to beat him to win the tournament, Mwali said: “We are friends off the board but when playing at this level, you need to put the friendship aside. It’s ‘friends off the board and enemies on the board’.”
Source: http://www.postzambia.com
He should take lessons with Nakamura.