By: Rodney Pienaar
The Namibia Chess Federation will be hosting the Namibian Schools Team Chess Championships to determine the 2019 champions, president of NCF Israel Shilongo has said.
The competition which is slated for the 9th of March will take place at Rehoboth at Origo primary school premises.
“The championships are open to all schools and they should be in teams. These championships also open to all junior players registered with the federation. These games are aimed at promoting chess as a sport, intellectual, educational and recreational outlet amongst the youth and the broader Namibian population.”
“It will improve the standard of junior chess players in Namibia as well as make way for the interested juniors to be part of the game of chess,” he said.
Shilongo also said that government and private primary schools are invited to take part in the championship.
“Each participating school may enter two teams of four players in each of the primary and secondary sections. Schools may enter a special 3rd team if such team is an all-female team or is made up of persons with disabilities. The championship format will be a SWISS System team tournament played over seven rounds.”
“Swiss Manager will be used to do the pairings. Match-points will be awarded as follow, two points for a win, one point for a draw; zero points for a loss. The rate of play will be 20 minutes per match,” said Shilongo.
The chief arbiter for this year’s championship will be appointed by the president. While the deputy Chief Arbiter and Section Arbiters will be appointed in consultation with the organizing Committee. Shilongo explained.
“The appeals committee will be announced at the start of round one. All complaints against any decision taken by the chief arbiter should be lodged with the appeals committee. N$ 100 is payable. The complainant shall lose the N$ 100 in the event of an unsuccessful appeal,” he said.
For each section, the first place will receive a gold medal, second place, silver and third bonze while all the participating teams will receive a certificate of participation.
