Tight final sees Beukes emerge victorious in Classical Chess

Fourteen year old Dante Beukes is the new Namibian Classical Chess champion after beating defending champion Charles Eichab in a very tight battle with both players scoring equal points. Beukes is the youngerst national champion to date.

Candidate Master (CM) Eichab lost on time to Beukes even though both scored 7 points. The defending champion he lost his title on the head-to-head tie-break.

In the women’s division, Lishen Mentile, the reigning champion, successfully defended her title.

FIDE Master (FM) Beukes, 14, finished the 9-round round-robin tournament with six wins, two draws and a loss to Goodwill Khoa who finished third. His draws were against Matjiua Kajovi (4 points) and Max Nitzborn (4 points).

Women’s Candidate Master (WCM) Mentile scored a perfect 7 wins from 7 matches to claim the title with a round to spare. She was followed by Kamutuua Tjatindi on 5 points with Patience Tsuses third.

“It was one of the toughest Championships ever as ‘the best faced the best’,” remarked Namibian Chess Federation Technical Director Israel Shilongo. “The level of chess has improved considerably and we’re now targeting continental championships.”

In this new format, the players first qualified from the Namibian Chess Championship Qualifiers. They then played an all-play-all tournament in each section. The top three players in each section automatically qualified for the 2018 Closed Championships.

Immanuel Gariseb and Nicola Tjaronda won the Open and Women’s section respectively, to also make it into next year’s Closed Championships.

The four-day tournament was held at Namutuni Primary School in Katutura over the Cassinga Day long weekend.

In the picture, from the left are Patience Tsuses, Charles Eichab, Lishen Mentile, Dante Beukes, Kamutuua Tjatindi, Goodwill Khoa and Namibian Chess Federation President Otto Nakapunda.