The CFZ vacate presidency was contested by former Copperbelt Chess league Association (CCLA) Chairperson Yohane Mukabe and Kennedy Phiri former Lusaka Province Chess Association Chairperson.
The AGM decided on the presidency and the Disciplinary Chairman after all other positions went unopposed during the nominations starting from the Vice president, Secretary down to committee members.
Solomon Simutowe is getting the Vice President, Chanda Nsakanya will take up the position of secretary while Aaron Banda will take up the position of Tournament Director.
Dennis Nyembe was unopposed as Treasurer, while deputy national secretary will be Richard Mwansa.
The committee members are Mercy Banda, Obrian Buumba, Mulambi Kasese and Moses Ntemena.
2010
I. THE FIDE CONGRESS AND GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
The 81st FIDE Congress and General Assembly represented the end of term of the FIDE office bearers who were brought into office by the 2006 General Assembly in Turin. The nominations for the 2010 FIDE Elections were concluded three months before the gathering and once again the FIDE President nominated FIDE Vice President Lewis Ncube to re-contest the position on his ticket.
After months of campaigning which included a court petition, the elections were once again won by the incumbent by 95 votes to 55 votes.
This meant that Zambia would again be represented at the world chess governing body for a further period of four years.
II. ZAMBIAN TEAM PERFORMANCE AT THE 39TH WORLD CHESS OLYMPIAD.
The 39th World Chess Olympiad saw Zambia being represented by both a Men’s team (Open Section) and a Women’s team (Women’s section) for the first time since the Bled Olympiad in 2002.
It was a very satisfying mission for both teams with the Men’s team achieving the best performance and winning the Gold medal in their category. The Men’s team finished in 47th place overall out of 149 participants. The placing also meant that Zambia was second in Africa behind Egypt on tie-break as both teams finished with 13 points. There were 26 African team entries in the Open section.
In the Women’s section, Zambia finished in 95th position out of 115 participating teams. This was also a very good performance bearing in mind that this was a first Olympiad participation for all the members of the Women’s team. On a Continental level the Women’s team finished 7th out of 15 African entries.
With enough training and preparation, our Women’s team is capable of finishing in the top three in Africa. This was evident in their earlier round matches where they excelled in drawing with Portugal and beating Korea and the category winners Jamaica.
Lack of experience showed in later rounds when it appeared that fatigue was also setting in.
On the whole, it was also a commendable performance by the Women’s team.
Whilst the Federation regularly holds national and regional tournaments, the ultimate goal is to gauge the strength and development of our chess players by participating in as many international tournaments as practically possible.
2011
2011 AFRICAN JUNIOR CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS
The 2010 African Junior Chess Championships were held at the Gonubie Hotel in the South African city of East London from the 26th February 2011 to 7th March 2011.
Zambia was represented by the reigning Zambia Schools champions CM Douglas Munenga; in the Open Section whilst WFM Epah Tembo was our representative in the Girls Section.
2011 ZONE 4.3 ZONAL CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS
The 2011 Zone 4.3 Championships were held in Gaborone, the Capital City of Botswana at Botswana National Productivity Center (BNPC) from 31st March to 10th April 2011 in Gaborone, Botswana.
Zambia was represented by IM Daniel Jere in the Open Section and FA Constance Mbatha and Yvonne Saina in the Women’s Section.
IM Daniel Jere acquitted himself very well and finished as runner up; thus earning himself the IM title.
Jere’s Silver Medal placing was achieved after a wonderful performance which included victories over Africa’s great top players such as IM Kenny Solomon and IM Watu Kobese.
2011 AFRICAN INDIVIDUAL CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS
The 2011 African Open Individual Chess Championship and African Individual Women’s Chess Championship were held in Maputo, Mozambique from June 3 to June 14 2011.
IM Daniel Jere, IM Stanley Chumfwa and FM Richmond Phiri represented Zambia in the Open event whilst WFM Epah Tembo was our representative in the Women’s event.
Jere finished in joint 4th position and Chumfwa finished in the top ten. Phiri did not have a good tournament.
WFM Epah Tembo finished in the top ten of the Women’s event.
2011 AFRICAN TEAM CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS (ALL AFRICAN GAMES)
The African Team Chess Championships has become an integral part of the All African Games since its inaugural debut in Abuja in 2003.
In 2011 the event took place in the Mozambican capital of Maputo.
Zambia only sent representatives in the Open Section. The team was made up of IM Daniel Jere, IM Stanley Chumfwa, IM Chitumbo Mwali, FM Richmond Phiri and Malembeka Chumfwa.
Whilst the team finished a disappointing 4th, IM Daniel Jere again was our savior with a Silver Medal on Board.
2011 COMMONWEALTH CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS
The 2011 Commonwealth Chess Championships were held together with the South African Open Chess Championships in Johannesburg, South Africa from the 25th June – 3rd July 2011.
Zambia was represented by IM Daniel Jere, FM Richmond Phiri and Musatwe Simutowe in the main event whilst Jonathan Thomas was in the age group section.
IM Daniel Jere excelled by finishing in joint 6th position with Grandmaster Pablo Lafuente of Argentina and Grandmaster Rajaram Laxman of India. His performance placed him ahead of renowned players such as Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta of India. On his way to the splendid final placing, Daniel had a great victory over the top Australian player Grandmaster David Smerdon.
2011 ZAMBIA CLOSED CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS
The 2011 Zambia Closed Chess Championships were held at the Olympic Youth Development Centre in Lusaka from Saturday, October 22 to Monday, October 24, 2011.
For the first time this event included an age group section. This was with the view of preparing for the upcoming African Youth Chess Championships.
The Open Section was won by IM Daniel Jere whilst WFM Epah Tembo won the Women’s Section.
2011 AFRICAN YOUTH CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS
The 3rd African Youth Chess Championships were held at Baobab College in the Zambian Capital of Lusaka from 10th December 2011 (arrival) to 19th December 2011(departure).
The original lodging venues were Baobab College Hostels, Sandy’s Creations Lodge and Lilayi Lodge.
Additional accommodation venues were included after the start of the tournament. These were Andrews Motel and Southern Sun Stayeasy.
These venues had to be included after the Botswana, Egypt and Kenyan delegations refused to stay at the designated venues.
A total of 147 players participated in the tournament.
The participants were drawn from nine FIDE affiliated African federations. These were Angola, Botswana, Egypt, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The tournament was played in two sections per age group; a Boys section and a Girls section.
There were six age groups in each section; under 8 years, under 10 years, under 12 years, under 14 years, under 16 years and under 18 years.
MEDAL PLACINGS
FEDERATION GOLD SILVER BRONZE
South Africa 8 4 8
Egypt 2 2 3
Zambia 2 1 -
Kenya - 2 1
Zimbabwe - 1 1
Angola - 1 -
Botswana - 1 -
2012 ZAMBIA CLOSED CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS
The 2012 Zambia Closed Chess Championships were held at Kitwe Central Hospital in Kitwe from June 30 to July 3, 2012.
The theme of having an age group section was continued and an impressive response from Copperbelt based schools was recorded.
The main event was won by IM Daniel Jere with WFM Epah Tembo winning the Women’s Section.
2012 WORLD CHESS OLYMPIAD
The 2012 World Chess Olympiad in the Turkish city of Istanbul represented the daunting task of our Men’s Team attempting to emulate their fantastic performance at the preceding event in 2010.
Our best ever team performance at the 2010 Olympiad held in the Russian town of Khanty Mansiysk where we finished in position 47 out of a total of 148 participating countries in the Open Section was a good tonic to banish the memories of our worst ever performance in the 2008 Olympiad held in the German City of Dresden; where we finished in position 117 out of a total of 146 participating countries.
It was also an opportunity to also add to the previously won three individual medals at the Chess Olympiads. These are:-
a) A Bronze Medal for Michael Thole on Board 4 at the 1986 Chess Olympiad in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
b) A Silver Medal for GM Amon Simutowe on Board 1 at the 2000 Chess Olympiad in the Turkish city of Istanbul
c) A Gold Medal for FM Richmond Phiri on Board 6 at the 2006 Chess Olympiad in Turin, Italy.
Unfortunately we could not quite come up to the 2012 standards despite performing quite commendably in both the Open and Women’s sections.
The Men’s Team comprising IM Daniel Jere, IM Stanley Chumfwa, FM Gillan Bwalya, FM Andrew Kayonde and FM Nase Lungu finished in 63rd position out of 150 participating countries in the Open Section. This performance was above the 83rd seeding at the start of the tournament.
In the Women’s Section our team comprising WFM Epah Tembo, CM Joy Mtine, FA Constance Mbatha, Linda Hamoonga and WFM Lorita Mwango finished in 98th position out of 127 participating countries. This performance was below the seeding position of 82.
2012 AFRICAN YOUTH CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS
The 2012 African Youth Chess Championships were held at the Faircity Roodevallei Hotel and Conference Centre in the city of Pretoria in the Gauteng Province of South Africa from 28 September 2012 to 8 October 2012.
Zambia was represented by WFM Lorita Mwango, Sekelani Tembo and Jonathan Thomas.
All three players performed quite well in their age groups with Lorita leading the charge with a bronze medal in the Girls Under 18 age group.
CHESS IN SCHOOLS PROGRAMME
The highlight of the year was the conclusion of the partnership agreement with the World Chess Federation (FIDE) for a funded Chess in Schools Programme. The agreement which was signed in October 2012 as a Partnership Contract is now being in process of being upgraded to a FIDE CiS 100 Contract where Zambia qualifies for a funding of US$ 45,000 per year from FIDE.
This funding involves funded programmes for 100 chess classrooms throughout Zambia.
In preliminary discussions with the Ministry of Education it has been agreed that the 100 chess classrooms to be accorded this funding will be selected on a provincial basis of 10 classrooms per province.
The first lot of the equipment funding is already ready for shipment.
It is expected that the CiS 100 programme should be fully in place by the end of March 2013.
SPORTING AWARDS
In 2012 the chess fraternity was greatly honoured when the sporting establishment recognized the 2011 achievements of our top players.
IM Daniel Jere was voted Sportsman of the Year whilst WFM Epah Tembo was voted Sportswoman of the Year.
This was indeed a milestone as this was also the first time a sporting section had both the awards given to its players at the same time.
LEWIS NCUBE
PRESIDENT, CHESS FEDERATION OF ZAMBIA