Africa-Press – Namibia. THE Namibian team has made steady progress since arriving at the 44th World Chess Championships in Chennai, India on 28 July.
Namibia’s men’s team opened their account against Brazil the next day in a David vs Goliath battle, with Namibia ranked 122nd in the world, while Brazil was ranked 28th,
Moreover, there was also there was a huge rating difference of 554, since Brazil had an average rating of 2563, compared to Namibia’s 2009.
Due to this, Brazil could afford to rest their best players, whilst still fielding four strong grand masters against Namibia’s young team.
International master (IM) Dante Beukes and candidate master (CM) Charles Eichab represented Namibia on board one and two, debutant Jossy Uapingene was on board three and national master (NM) Goodwill Khoa was on board four.
As expected Brazil won all four matches, but Namibia’s players gave a good account of themselves.
“Chess is a game of small margins, and one mistake can cost you the game. The team felt that was the case, as all of them had some very good positions on the board against their much stronger opponents,” team Namibia stated in a press release.
In the women’s section, Namibia played the 42nd ranked Lithuania, who had an average rating of 2 148, compared to Namibia’s world ranking of 123 and its average rating of 1 336.
The team was led by woman candidate master (WCM) Jolly-Joice Nepando on board one, and Patience Tsuses on board four, while the 18-year-old Keisha-Cathriona Van Wyk and 14-year-old Jamie-Nicole Beukes made their debuts on boards two and three respectively.
The team captain and coach, Fide master (FM) Leonhard Mueller, commended the team by saying that the rating difference on paper did not match the performances on the board, and noted that the team actually played at a much higher level.
Namibia’s mens team came back with a bang on 30 July when they beat Gabon 4-0.
Gabon was ranked 169th at the tournament with an average rating of 1608, while Namibia’s average rating is 401 points higher than Gabon.
Namibia’s women, however, suffered another 4-0 defeat against Syria, which had a much higher world ranking of 83 and an average rating of 1 762 points.
On 31 July, Namibia’s men faced a gruelling battle against Kosovo, which was ranked 71st with an average rating of 2 319 points. Despite being ranked lower, Namibia had some winning chances but eventually suffered a 3-1 defeat.
Namibia’s women recorded their first victory of the tournament when they beat Bahrain 3-1, which had a world ranking of 143 and a rating average of 1 131 points.
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