Eichab clears out his opponents at Kehat Beukes

The winners - (Left to Right) Dante Beukes, Immanuel Gariseb, Colin Nyandoro, Charles Eichab, Larissa Beukes, Zandell Nakapunda and Michael Haidongo (sited).

The year ended on an excellent note for Namibia's most accomplished and most decorated chess player. CM Charles Eichab took home another gold medal at the recently held Kehat Beukes Memorial Chess Tournament held at Protea Hotel Thuringerhof in Windhoek. The candidate master was ruthless in squeezing 9 (nine) straight wins from all his hopeful opponents. With this victory, Eichab claimed his 4th gold medal this year alone and marked his 50th tournament victory since he started playing chess before Y2K.

As has become tradition during the Beukes Memorial, another underdog emerged victorious over a barrage of chess masters. Colin Nyandoro claimed his first ever silver medal at the tournament when he followed Eichab with an amazing 7.5 out of 9 after beating CM Nakapunda and CM Handjaba who were all tournament favorites. Zandell Nakapunda finished in 3rd spot with a 6.5 total score, closely followed by Gariseb Immanuel and McLean Handjaba with 6 points each. In fifth spot was Edmund Gariseb who put up well fought fights throughout the tournament.

Junior champion Immanuel Gariseb proved why he remains top of his peers as he scoped the best junior gold medal after scoring with Dante Beukes claiming the best Cadet prize with 4.5 points.

Lucky prizes were also included at the tournament this year to give chance to those not in the top prizes a chance at winning N$200 each. Fortune favored Billy Chisenga and Michael Haidongo in this new initiative.

The tournament is held each year in honor of the late Dr. Kehat Beukes who served as Namibia Chess Federation president from 1994 till his untimely death in 1999.

All  appreciation and gratitude goes out to the Beukes family and the main sponsor Bank Windhoek for making this tournament a reality.

No female players participated in this year's Beukes Memorial.

Champion Charles Eichab and Larissa Beukes in the middle.

Final Standings

Place Name                Feder Rtg Loc  Score M-Buch. Buch. Progr.

  1   Eichab, Charles               2100 9        38.5  50.5   45.0
  2   Nyandoro, Collin                   7.5      37.5  51.0   37.5
  3   Nakapunda, Otto               2060 6.5      39.0  52.5   32.5
 4-5  Gariseb, Immanuel             2000 6        37.0  49.5   33.0
      Handjaba, Mclean              2040 6        37.0  46.5   29.0
 6-9  Gariseb, Edmund               2000 5        39.0  51.5   30.0
      Tyane, Billy                  2040 5        34.5  45.0   27.0
      Ehrich, Thomas                     5        34.5  45.0   27.0
      Campbell, Clarence                 5        32.0  42.5   25.0
10-13 Gawiseb, George                    4.5      34.5  45.0   22.0
      Jaftha, B-Jah                      4.5      29.5  36.0   20.5
      Beukes, Dante                      4.5      29.0  37.0   22.0
      Goosaard, Willem                   4.5      27.0  35.0   18.5
14-17 Tjiriange, Richman                 4        34.0  41.5   23.0
      Ndungula, Borro                    4        28.0  34.5   17.0
      Tjirare, Gatsen                    4        27.0  32.5   18.0
      Eixab, Calvin                      4        23.0  29.5   20.0
 18   Schwarz, Bernhard                  3        22.0  27.5   12.0
19-20 Shatipamba, Lazarus                2        29.0  35.5   12.0
      Hoabeb, Joseph                     2        26.5  32.0   10.0
 21   Haindongo, Michael                 1        29.0  36.5    5.0

Final Cross Table
No Name                Feder Rtg  1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9  

1  Eichab, Charles               10:W  6:W  7:W  2:W  3:W  4:W  5:W  9:W  8:W
2  Nyandoro, Collin              12:W 13:W  5:W  1:L  8:W  3:W  6:D  4:W 10:W
3  Nakapunda, Otto               13:W  8:W  4:D  5:W  1:L  2:L  7:W  6:W 12:W
4  Gariseb, Immanuel             11:W 17:W  3:D  7:W  6:D  1:L 10:W  2:L 14:W
5  Handjaba, Mclean              21:W  9:W  2:L  3:L 11:W 14:W  1:L  7:W  6:W
6  Gariseb, Edmund               15:W  1:L 10:W 18:W  4:D  8:W  2:D  3:L  5:L
7  Tyane, Billy                  20:W 14:W  1:L  4:L 18:W  9:W  3:L  5:L 17:W
8  Ehrich, Thomas                19:W  3:L 16:W  9:W  2:L  6:L 15:W 14:W  1:L
9  Campbell, Clarence            18:W  5:L 14:W  8:L 12:W  7:L 11:W  1:L 20:W
10 Gawiseb, George                1:L 15:W  6:L 11:D 16:W 12:W  4:L 19:W  2:L
11 Jaftha, B-Jah                  4:L 12:D 20:W 10:D  5:L 18:W  9:L 21:W 13:D
12 Beukes, Dante                  2:L 11:D 19:W 15:W  9:L 10:L 21:W 16:W  3:L
13 Goosaard, Willem               3:L  2:L 21:W 16:L 19:W 17:W 14:L 15:W 11:D
14 Tjiriange, Richman             0:W  7:L  9:L 19:W 17:W  5:L 13:W  8:L  4:L
15 Ndungula, Borro                6:L 10:L  0:W 12:L 20:W 16:W  8:L 13:L 19:W
16 Tjirare, Gatsen               17:L  0:W  8:L 13:W 10:L 15:L 20:W 12:L 21:W
17 Eixab, Calvin                 16:W  4:L 18:L 21:W 14:L 13:L 19:W 20:W  7:L
18 Schwarz, Bernhard              9:L 21:W 17:W  6:L  7:L 11:L  0:W  0:   0: 
19 Shatipamba, Lazarus            8:L 20:W 12:L 14:L 13:L  0:W 17:L 10:L 15:L
20 Hoabeb, Joseph                 7:L 19:L 11:L  0:W 15:L 21:W 16:L 17:L  9:L
21 Haindongo, Michael             5:L 18:L 13:L 17:L  0:W 20:L 12:L 11:L 16:L

KEHAT BEUKES MEMORIAL CHESS TOURNAMENT 2014

N$300 000 up for grabs at Continental Chess Championship

Egypt’s GM Adly Ahmed is the tournaments highest rated player

Namibia is proud to host the 2014 Africa Individual Chess Championship (AICC) this coming weekend in Windhoek at the Safari Court and Hotel. The event has registered close to 15 African nations that will be arriving this weekend. The competition is poised to be the continent’s most exhilarating and competitive chess event this year.

Under the auspices of the African Chess Confederation (ACC), the Namibia Chess Federation (NCF) will be showcasing Africa’s crème de la crème of chess tournaments for individuals from the 12^th to the 23^rd December. The federation agreed late this year to host the championship at short notice, even so the President, Otto Nakapunda was very tenacious in maintaining that the NCF will make it a success. Nakapunda motivated that the federation is very confident and in a buoyant mood to welcome some of Africa’s best chess players to Windhoek this Friday. He explained that this comes just after a fruitful hosting the Zone 4.3 Chess Championship held in the capital in June this year and will thus not be a new experience for him and the organizing team.

Players at this year’s championship will be coming to blows for a whopping US$27 500 (N$315 975.00) total cash prize for the top 8 in the open section and top 7 in the female section. Apart from the cash prizes the chess masterminds will also be sweating unimaginable for the invaluable Grand Master (GM) and Women Grand Master (WGM) titles that will be awarded by the world chess body – FIDE, to the overall winner of each category.

Countries that have confirmed their participation include Sao Tome & Principe, Ghana, Libya, Namibia, Botswana, Togo, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Algeria, Seychelles, and Malawi. Amongst these Egypt, Nigeria, Zambia and South African have the largest contingents and are all favorites to claim the big prizes.

Top seed players from the female section comprise of Algeria’s WIM Mezioud Amina, Egypt’s WGM Wafa Shrook and South Africa’s WIM Frick Denise. In the tightly packed open segment, Egypt’s GM Adly Ahmed, and GM El Gindy Essam and Algeria’s GM Haddouche Mohamed all lead the pack as likely winners.

The NCF employed some of country’s best players to take-part in this event with some notable absentees however. The Namibian team includes; Candidate Master (CM) McLean Handjaba, the 2013 national champion Goodwill Khoa, junior champion Immanuel Gariseb, national female champion Nicola Tjaronda, Mentile Lishen, Tjatindi Kamutuua and CM Jolly Nepando.  Absentees from the Namibian lineup includes mainly veteran players in likes of Swiss based 2014 National Champion, Leonard Mueller, Sanders Oberholzer, Simon Shidolo, four times national champion CM Charles Eichab and Max Nitzborn. One of the players, Immanuel Gariseb is currently taking part in the African Junior Championship being held in Angola and is said to return in-form to compete by the start of Round 1 on Saturday.

National chess coach, Charles Eichab clarified however that the youthful male and female players nominated to compete have been training hard and should attain good results and very good FIDE ratings from this tournament.