FIDE ZONE 4.3 INDIVIDUAL CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP: THE RETURN OF IM GWAZE ROBERT

Born in Harare, Zimbabwe in the year 1982, Robert learned chess at the age of 9 and by the age of 15 (1997), he won the Zimbabwean National Chess Championship to become the youngest National Champion in Zimbabwe and probably Africa. He got his International Master (IM) title a year later after coasting through the African Junior Chess Championship, which held in Kenya and did a repeat of the feat in the following year. In the year 2002, Robert won all the 9 games he played at the 35^th World Chess Olympiad in Bled, Slovenia and picked up the Gold medal on Board 1, with a 100% record at the event, becoming only the second player to achieve this feat.

Robert decided to leave chess after representing Africa twice at the Chess World Cup (2007 and 2011), and he comes back after 5 years (as he still played chess competitively in September 2012) of waiting for good strength from the southern region of the continent to participate in this year’s qualifier for the 2017 Chess World Cup. Is he back for good? Would he push for the grandmaster title? Would he win the tournament? These are questions on the lips of those following the Fide Zone 4.3 Individual Chess Championship, Zambia, 2017, and some players will be responding on the board rather than talking tough like the Great Mohammed Ali, while some others say he would not find it easy to come back and top the tournament. 

The 2017 edition of The Fide Zone 4.3 Individual Chess Championship, which will hold from the 10^th to 17^th of June, with about 6 federations participating, is billed to be the strongest tournament in the Southern region of the continent, and would certainly be a good tournament to follow, with hopes that the coverage will be as constructive and comprehensive as the players on the board of play.

While IM Cawdery Daniel from South Africa leads the delegation of players to the tournament, IM Andrew Kayonde of Zambia is probably the most consistent of the lot, and would be looking to pick up the ticket to Georgia later this year for The World Cup. 

Two players to surprise the top players though would be untitled Mulenga Prince Daniel of Zambia and untitled Masango Spencer of Zimbabwe who would be showing off skills gotten as a result of hard training and prove a difficult nut to crack.

This will be a very interesting tournament and the winner at the end of the 9 rounds would definitely have earned his place at the 2017 Chess World Cup at Tblisi, Georgia, which is billed to hold from 1^st to 25^th of September.