"My opponent left a glass of whisky 'en prise' and I took it 'en passant". - Henry Blackburne | SINCE 2007

Friday, September 14, 2007

Robert Gwaze is the African Champion

ZIMBABWE'S International Master Robert Gwaze was crowned the new African Individual Chess Champion on Monday night after emerging undefeated in the 10-day tournament.


Gwaze (25) will now represent Africa at the World Chess Championship in Russia in November. He beat 50 other top African players including Egyptian Grand Masters Slim Belkhodja, Amin Bassem and Ahmed Adly, among others.He is now rated top GM norm, and will become a Grand Master if he wins his next competitive tournament.

This will take to 2 the number of african grandmasters from sub saharan africa after Amon Simutowe

MORE INFO AT:
Herald,
the chess drum

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amhlophe, Makorokoto, Congratulations Gwaze!! From a fellow Zimbongonese in the Diaspora. I remember this boy's Prince Edward High School days when we used to chow him like fresh meat. En nou? He is is scary like sh*t. Korir - nice blog. Keep us posted bru! Sharp, sharp!

Anonymous said...

Congrats to Gwaze!! I first met this talented lad when he tore throgh tuff opposition including GM Simutowe to win the African Juniors in Nairobi at only 16yrs. I later had the honour of playing him regular friendlies in Watford, UK (don't ask the score, but I got lucky a few times with draws and a win). I had the privilege to accompany him to a few tournaments and beamed with pride as he annihilated English GMs. He has also scalped GMs Adams and Short over the net. He is a definite cert for GM status, probably overdue.
I salute you Robert. BRAVO!!
Collins

Edwin korir said...

Thanks guys. I think Zimbabwe will get its second grand ma steer in the next few months. But what about other African countries?

Anonymous said...

Just a necessary correction to the previous comment. . . Amon Simutowe is a Zambian! Hopefully Kenya will produce the third!!!
Any chance you can post a provisional tournaments calendar for till year end? Thanks in advance!!

Amos said...

1st time i saw this guy was when the annual schools chess tournament was held at our school (Gokomere High School) in 1996. He was only 13 years old at that time and my big brother, then 18 year old Amion Chinodakufa, was the reigning Junior National Champion at that time.

The two of them met on game 5 and everybody thought my brother was going to win against the sweet little kid who'd just left Primary school. And much to everybody's surprise, Gwaze won and eventually took 1st prize for board 1 with a 100% score of 6/6.

Perhaps my brother had underestimated him, perhaps Gwaze was just simply superior already by that time. All the same, Gwaze is, in my opinion, the best player to come out of Africa.