South Africa’s chess Grandmaster Kenny Solomon of South Africa won the championships with 7.5 points out of a possible 9. Nicknamed King Solomon, one of Southern Africa’s only two grandmasters displayed his incredible wisdom and experience on the chequered board. Kenny showed his mettle and resolve in a very tough tournament which fielded some very strong players. The 2017 Zone 4.3 individual chess championships were held in Zambia running for a week from the 10th of June to the 17th at the Warm Harbour hotel in Livingstone Zambia. By the time the tournament was finished there was only one winner on the summit, King Solomon!
The coveted ticket to the World Cup in Georgia
By virtue of winning this zonal chess event Grandmaster Solomon won a much-coveted entry to the Chess World Cup to be played in Georgia during the month of September. The World Cup will provide one of the spots to the Candidates Tournament that will determine who the challenger to World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen. The World Champion Carlsen will be playing in the tournament himself so who knows Kenny Solomon might just end up playing the World Champion in the event.
Mostly titled players in the event
At least 32 players took part in this event. Most of the players taking part where titled players, International Masters (IMs), Candidate Masters (CMs) and FIDE Masters (FMs). Players who did not have any kind of chess title were in the minority at this event. The top seed of the event was IM Daniel Cawdery of South Africa who had a rating of 2434 while his counterpart Kenny Solomon was on 2376.
He did not lose a single game in the event
Grandmaster Solomon went through the whole event without losing a single game. Out of nine games he won seven games and drew three. Like a hot knife cutting through butter the Grandmaster was unstoppable in the first 5 rounds where he won all his games before he slowed over the next 3 rounds with draws before ending the tournament on a high note by winning in the last round against international Master Daniel Jere of Zambia. He drew against IMs Andrew Kayonde, Chitumbo Mwali and Daniel Cawdery.
Dedicating the victory to Eldo Smart
Shortly after the event Grandmaster Solomon dedicated his victory to the late Eldo Smart, President of CHESS SOUTH AFRICA. Kenny and Eldo were very close with the late CHESS SA president playing a pivotal role in the Grandmaster’s chess career.
IM Chitumbo Mwali in a close second
In second place was international Master Chitumbo Mwali of Zambia. International Masters Richmond Phiri (Zambia), Daniel Cawdery (South Africa) and Aderito Pedro (Angola) were third equal on 6 points.
The organisers of the event was the African chess Federation in conjunction with the local chess federation. The tournament director was International Arbiter Chanda Nsakanya. Arbiters for the event were IA Aaron Banda, FA Simbarashe Murimi, FA Jeffrey Kanguma, FA Tony’s Goosen, National Arbiter Sydney Mukumbo. The time control was 90 minutes for first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with increment of 30 seconds from move one.
Here is the final crosstable after 9 rounds at the 4.3 Zonal Championships
Compare the final ranking above with the ranking of the players before the event.
The games from the event
Here are some of the games from the event. To download these games please click on the link below.
Games from the Zonal 4.3 Chess Championships
Replaying the games. You can replay the games on the following link – Chess games from 2017 Zone 4.3 Individual Chess Championships – Open Section or just go through them below on this page.