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Allen Khumalo, Sports Reporter
TWENTY-FIVE Bulawayo schools will tomorrow converge at Christian Brothers College (CBC) for the annual Equate Africa Chess Tournament.

Formerly known as the CBC Chess Tournament, the competition rebranded after acquiring sponsorship from Equate Africa, an independent South African-based property and construction consultancy providing managed solutions for clients investing in infrastructure, property and construction across the continent.

Event organiser Niva Songo said one of Equate Africa’s founding directors is a former CBC student Nhlanhla Mtobi, who decided to give back to his former school.

“All along the CBC chess competition has been a self-supporting annual event, but from now onwards it will be named after our sponsors.

“In every competition, the company will be supplying floating shields, medals, chess equipment, which includes game timers, T-shirts for officials and magnetic demonstration boards,”” said Songo.

Songo said 60 teams made up of four individuals had confirmed their participation in tomorrow’s event, with some schools coming from outside Bulawayo.

“The tournament is a four a-side event for boys and girls in the junior and senior categories. So far we have received a huge response from participants and we hope this will make the competition one of the largest and best organised in the country,” he said.

Mtobi said: “The highlights of my school years were involvement in multitudes of extracurricular sporting and club activities the college provided. I wish to continue contributing to their existence by helping with sponsorship.”

Mathe Primary School won gold in the junior girls’ category last year followed by Montrose A and Montrose B. Mpopoma High School came first in the senior girls’ category, while Njube and Sizane High schools were second and third respectively.

Mandwandwe Primary School won in the junior boys’ category and Gifford B were champions in the senior boys’ event.

@khumzallen