Moorosi Tsiane

LOCAL chess players have decided to introduce a new competition in a bid to lighten the burden of the Chess Federation of Lesotho (CFL).

Dubbed Rapid and Blitz, the two-day tournament will be played at Botho University premises on 7 and 8 September.

The overall winner will walk away with M1500 while the best players in the female category and the juniors would also be awarded.

The tournament organiser Monaheng Motlomelo told the Sunday Express that the initiative was their way of contributing to the growth of the sport.

“This is a new tournament which we introduced to play our part in helping the growth of the sport,” Motlomelo said.

“The federation is playing its part by having their own tournaments and they will be having one soon, so we are saying let us also play our part as chess lovers as it is all our responsibility. This tournament is sponsored by different individuals who just love the sport.”

Motlomelo said the tournament would be open to all who can play the sport.

“It is an open and mixed tournament. It is meant for everyone who is able to play chess and is different from other competitions that we have held in the country.

“Rapid and Blitz is different from normal chess games because it is faster than normal games and we thought this could be an interesting new dimension for local chess.

“We are still sourcing some sponsors because we want to have big prizes, so hopefully, by the time we host the tournament we would have managed to convince some corporates to partner us,” Motlomelo said.