{"id":2891,"date":"2021-09-03T09:32:06","date_gmt":"2021-09-03T09:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/chess-federation-of-lesotho-aiming-high"},"modified":"2021-09-03T09:32:06","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T09:32:06","slug":"chess-federation-of-lesotho-aiming-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/chess-federation-of-lesotho-aiming-high","title":{"rendered":"Chess Federation of Lesotho aiming high"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Lesotho<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>The Chess Federation of Lesotho (CFL) is optimistic that team Lesotho will give an outstanding performance at the 2020 Zone 4.5 Individual Chess Championships to<\/p>\n

be hosted by Lesotho in February 9-16. According to CFL Public Relations Officer, Selatela Khiba, there has been a significant growth in the sport in recent years, and his federation is expecting a good performance from team<\/p>\n

Lesotho despite the challenges they are faced with. \u201cLooking at the previous National Chess Championships and the overall performance in recent times, our players<\/p>\n

have improved a lot \u2013 we are hopeful that those who will be representing us at the Zone 4.5 Individual Chess Championships will do well,\u201d said Khiba in an<\/p>\n

exclusive interview with Informative Sport. \u201cIn spite of having very limited resources after we did not receive subvention from government last year, our<\/p>\n

players have improved significantly. [p1] \u201cThey are so good that our main challenge now is acquiring services of a coach with sharper skills, especially<\/p>\n

a foreign coach. All local coaches are on the same level with our players here. \u201d According to Khiba, in 2016 at the World Chess Olympiad in Baku, team Lesotho was briefly mentored by Ukrainian<\/p>\n

coach, Andrei Maksimenko, and the results were impressive. \u201cHe was with the team for only 14 days, but the outcome was amazing,\u201d said Khiba who also indicated that they are<\/p>\n

hoping to recruit a coach before the Russia World Chess Olympiad slated for August 2020. He further said that only the winners (first prize) of the previously held National Chess Championships have already<\/p>\n

qualified to play at the 2020 Zone 4.5 Individuals Chess Championships and the 2020 World Chess Olympiad in Moscow, Russia. The National Chess Championship finals,<\/p>\n

which were initially scheduled for December 23-24, took place on the weekend of December 28-29, 2019. T\u0161ephe Lebajoa and \u2018Malehloa Likhomo won in the Open and<\/p>\n

Ladies\u2019 section respectively. They each won a trophy, gold medal and a computer tablet. Lebajoa pocketed M1, 500 while \u2018Malehloa took home M630. Second prize (Silver) in the Open<\/p>\n

section was scooped by Tokelo Klass while Theko Khanyapa won the third price. They each pocketed M1, 500. In the Ladies category, second and third prizes of<\/p>\n

M630, smart watch, wireless headsets and MP3 player went to Naleli McPherson and Ntsielo Bonolo respectively. Khiba revealed that the National Chess Championships tournament was used as an opportunity for the players to<\/p>\n

generate points to stand a chance to qualify for the Zone 4.5 Individual Chess Championships. \u201cTop performers, excluding first prize winners, will take part in a final competition called \u2018Lesotho Closed\u2019 to<\/p>\n

be hosted in early February,\u201d said Khiba. \u201cThis is where we will pick those who finish with higher points to represent Lesotho at the Zone 4.5 Individual Championships. \u201d [p1]quote<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. The Chess Federation of Lesotho (CFL) is optimistic that team Lesotho will give an outstanding performance at the 2020 Zone 4.5 Individual Chess Championships to be hosted by Lesotho in February 9-16. According to CFL Public Relations Officer, Selatela Khiba, there has been a significant growth in the sport in recent years, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":2890,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,17,16],"tags":[233,246,282,245],"class_list":["post-2891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-chess","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nChess Federation of Lesotho aiming high - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/chess-federation-of-lesotho-aiming-high\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chess Federation of Lesotho aiming high\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa-Press – Lesotho. The Chess Federation of Lesotho (CFL) is optimistic that team Lesotho will give an outstanding performance at the 2020 Zone 4.5 Individual Chess Championships to be hosted by Lesotho in February 9-16. According to CFL Public Relations Officer, Selatela Khiba, there has been a significant growth in the sport in recent years, […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/chess-federation-of-lesotho-aiming-high\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-09-03T09:32:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/09\/img-6131f40f0d367.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"405\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/chess-federation-of-lesotho-aiming-high#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/chess-federation-of-lesotho-aiming-high\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Chess Federation of Lesotho aiming high\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-09-03T09:32:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/chess-federation-of-lesotho-aiming-high\"},\"wordCount\":456,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/chess-federation-of-lesotho-aiming-high#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/09\/img-6131f40f0d367.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Chess\",\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"sport\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/chess-federation-of-lesotho-aiming-high#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/chess-federation-of-lesotho-aiming-high\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/chess-federation-of-lesotho-aiming-high\",\"name\":\"Chess Federation of Lesotho aiming high - 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