Africa-Press – Lesotho. -The Lesotho men and women chess players jetted off the country on Friday morning to Batumi, Georgia with high hopes of winning at the 43rd Chess Olympiad held in Butumi from this past Sunday till the 6th October this year.
Team Lesotho is made up of five female players namely: Maboloko Leboela, Lieketseng Ngatane, Naleli Mcpherson, ‘Malillo Phera and ‘Malehloa Likhomo while the men team is made up of Theko Khanyapa, Tokelo Klaas, Sechaba Khalema, Liteboho Mohatlane and Ramokotjo Lekau.
The ladies’ side is captained by one of the Lesotho’s national development coach, Mr Phera Moseli as Chess Federation of Lesotho (CFL) Public Relations Officer, Mr Khiba Selatela is leading the men charges.
This will be the third time Lesotho takes part in the Olympiad. The first time was in 2014 when the games where held in Mackhallen Tromso, Norway and the last time was in 2016 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
In 2016, Lesotho players started getting titles when Ngatane became a Woman (Fédération Internationale des Échecs) FIDE Master (WF), Leboela got Woman Candidate Master (WC) and Chief Joang Molapo got his Candidate Master (C) title.
In this year’s Olympiad squad, players who will be making their debut in this world event are Khanyapa, Lekau, Phera, Khiba and Likhomo. But that Selatela indicated is not a worry to the team citing that the likes of Khanyapa, Lekau had once represented the Mountain Kingdom in the World Amateur Championship which was in Singapore in 2015.
As for ‘Malillo Phera, Khiba and Likhomo, he said regardless of lack of world based events exposure they can still make the nation proud. For their finals preparations, the team took part at the recent FIDE rated Mozambique Open Chess Championships. Therefore Selatela said in reference to what they observed from Mozambique, they are expecting more titles and medals from this event.
