Goodwil Khoa is 2013 National Chess Championship

The past Easter weekend saw the coming together of chess players and chess enthusiast alike as the National Chess Federation (NCF) hosted yet another successful National Chess Championship. This year’s championship brought about a new era for Namibian chess players as both young and old battled fiercely over the chess board for the esteemed National Chess Champion title. 

The 9 round long tournament took five (5) days to complete and was held at the Protea Thuringerhof Hotel in Windhoek over the ester weekend. 35 of the country’s best chess players participated in this annually anticipated tournament which following fierce competition resulted in the crowning of a new young Namibian National Chess Champion, Goodwill Khoa. The new champion has for the past 8 years since 2005 witnessed the crowing of older and more experienced chess players as National Champions, this year however, at the age of 23, he has now finally taken a giant leap for all young Namibian Chess players and has become one of youngest chess champions taking over the rein of last year’s champion Charles Eichab after drawing with the tournament favourite Otto Nakapunda in the final round and also having earlier drawn with another tournament favourite Charlse Eichab in round 4^th . Khoa, finished top of the tournament with a splendid score of 6 wins, 3 draws, 0 losses out of 9 long 3 hour classical games which gave him 21 points in total.  Following Khoa, was another young chess player, McLean Handjaba who also made chess headlines as he came in 2^nd place this year after qualifying for the National team last year during the 2012 National championship in 4^th place. The 21 year old finished with 19 points followed by the veteran player, Otto Nakapunda in 3^rd place with 17 points.

This year’s National tournament had a separate Women’s section, which meant that the women only played one another. In this section, a new champion was again crowned as the new National Women’s Chess Champion when Kamutuua Tjatindi took over last year’s women’s champion 14 year old Nicola Tjaronda. Up and coming 16 year old Lishen Mentile, came in 2^nd in the women’s section with Rauha Shipindo coming in 3^rd place.

Katjovi Matjua won the junior (Under 20) section, followed by Immanuel Gariseb in 2^nd place and Julian Isaaks in 3^rd place. The top 3 from both the Open and Women’s section automatically qualify to represent Namibian at the Zone 4.3. games in Botswana for 2013 Africa Individual Chess Championship from the 30^th of April to 10^th of May 2013.

Women’s Section - Final Standings

Place Name                Feder Rtg Loc  Score  Berg. Wins

  1   Tjatindi, Beverly             1537 16    152.00    5

  2   Mentile, Lishen               1488 14    110.00    4

  3   Shipindo, Rauha               1600 13     95.00    4

 4-5  Nepando, Jolly                     12     99.00    4

      Tjaronda, Nicola              1570 12     81.00    4

  6   Ndjoze, Ngangane              1500 9      54.00    3

  7   Aluteni, El-Shaddai           1500 6      48.00    2

  8   Van Wyk, Keisha               1300 0       0.00    0

Open Section- Final Standings

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

  1   Khoa, Goodwil                1882 21     113.0   112.0 141.0

  2   Handjaba, Mclean             1760 19      89.0   104.0 127.0

 3-4  Nakapunda, Otto              2026 18      93.0   107.0 141.0

      Eichab, Charles              2166 18      90.0   112.0 146.0

 5-6  Nitzborn, Josef              1964 17      88.0   109.0 142.0

      Matjiua, Kajovi              1639 17      75.0    96.0 121.0

  7   Nauiseb, Alfred              1500 16      60.0    78.0  95.0

8-10  Nghifikwa, Leonard           1500 15      87.0   108.0 142.0

      Gariseb, Immanuel            1626 15      81.0   102.0 126.0

      Kapuire, Glenvile            1500 15      75.0    95.0 122.0

11-12 Isaak, Julian                1665 14      87.0   109.0 140.0

      Tjingaete, Hange             1620 14      70.0    87.0 107.0

13-18 Gariseb, Edmund              1768 13      74.0   110.0 136.0

      Tjiriange, Richman           1663 13      73.0    94.0 116.0

      Ehrich, Thomas               1843 13      72.0    92.0 118.0

      Kamberipa, William           1613 13      66.0   103.0 133.0

      Eixab, Calvin                1765 13      58.0    79.0 101.0

      Hochobeb, Mutago             1500 13      50.0    60.0  81.0

19-20 Kuhanga, Fremantle           1574 12      60.0    92.0 112.0

      Tjimune, Kievido             1500 12      54.0    85.0 108.0

 21   Eichab, Doc                  1500 10      52.0    65.0  89.0

22-24 Uapinge, Jossy               1500 7       46.0    91.0 113.0

      Uirab, Adelino               1637 7       41.0    79.0  99.0

      Hochobeb, Mubasen            1500 7       25.0    56.0  71.0

 25   Kandume, Ileni               1500 6       33.0    71.5  89.5

26-27 Benjamin, Hooker             1300 3       18.0    70.0  88.0

      Cloete, Aldrin               1500 3       12.0    24.0  39.5

 28   Nangula, Etu                 1500 0        0.0    34.0  56.0