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Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
REGISTRATION for the Milton Open Chess Championships set for Saturday at Milton High School has started and is set to close on Friday.

The competition is being organised by the Milton High School Chess Club in partnership with the Bulawayo Chess Association (BCA).

By lunch time yesterday, 45 participants, 39 men and six women, had registered for the competition that has drawn players from Mutare, Hwange, Gwanda, Filabusi, Plumtree and Gweru.

Top men’s seed Tarcisio Chikandi and best ranked women’s player Tessa Gumirenhete of ZRP Bulawayo were among the first players to register for the tournament.

Moses Mutipforo, BCA director of information, said they will introduce the development section at Saturday’s championships as part of their efforts to create excitement among aspiring chess players.

“We will have many sections and one exciting category that we are introducing is the development section. This category is for primary school going chess players. Introduction of the category at Bulawayo Chess Association organised competitions is part of the board’s initiatives to identify and nurture talent at grassroots levels. Entry fees for primary school participants are only a $1,” said Mutipforo.

Top players will compete in the open section with the other categories being women, junior section A (for Form 4 to Form 6) and the Junior B, which is for participants from Form 1 to Form 4.

The Milton competition comes a month after the BCA held a successful Heroes’ Open tournament won by Kudakwashe Sibanda of Nust Chess Club. The Heroes’ Open was held at the Bulawayo Polytechnic.

Sibanda dominated a field of 89 by scoring a remarkable score of seven from seven matches.

He beat national champion Dion James Moyo in the penultimate round, relegating him to third with six wins out of seven games.

Farai Janyure of Plumtree finished second, while BCA top seed Sifiso Ncube ended seventh.

The trio are among a host of top players expected to challenge top ranked Chikandi.

Some of the players to watch on Saturday include Nust’s Nigel Mabiza, Valentine Nkoma of Nkulumane, the ZRP Bulawayo duo of Sifiso Ncube and Elvis Shora, Tony Siyanyezu of Bulawayo Polytechnic as well as Bulawayo Chess Club’s Bruce Mhondiwa.

@ZililoR