Gwaze wins zonal

GWAZE WINS ZONAL CHESS CHAMPS IN BOTSWANA
Written by Sports reporter
Tuesday, 12 April 2011 12:03

International Master ROBERT GWAZE won the just ended zonal 4.3 Africa chess championships held in GABORONE ,BOTSWANA from the first of April to the 9th. After seven rounds of play he had a perfect score. His perfect score was spoiled by IM Kenny Solomon of South Africa in the eighth round of play.

He almost made history by his run away lead which was the cut to a point lead after leading all the way. He only needed a draw to win the tournament which he managed comfortably after drawing his game against Eiberto from Angola.In the second positon was the Zambian Daniel Jere who won his final game against Kenny Solomon of South Africa to earn himself an IM title.

Before the tournament he was a FIDE Master.He was behind Gwaze by half a point.

Kenny Solomon who was the tournament favourite finished with 5 points out of the 9 games of play. Another highly rated player who did not perform as expected was IM Watu KOBESE of SA. He lost his final round to finish with 4,5 points. Kheto. P was the Batswana player finishing with 5 points, Notha 4,5 points, Ignatius Njovu had 4,5 while Barileng had 2,5 points all these are the Tswanas. GWAZE got himself a ticket to the World cup to be held sometime later this year.

This is the second time that he has qualified to play in this tournament. In 2007 he was paired against the Great Grand Master Alexey Shirov. This time we hope that he will surpass the first round. FIDE MASTER Makoto Rodwell and NATIONAL CHAMPION Dion Moyo did not compete in this tournament as expected by the Zimbabweans. GWAZE is the only Zimbabwean who competed and he was the only winner to represent Africa in the World Cup.

Source: http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk