The past weekend Van Rhyn Primary School Hall was the place where the school teams challenged each other for top honors in the battle of minds. Kolin Foundation Secondary School A Team won the team tournament with 24,5/28 points and earned themselves N$1,000.00 and 4 gold medals for each of the Champion chess players, Romanus Shikalepo, Uugwanga Shaningwa, Simon Mwanuangapo and Thomas Shivera. The pawn floating trophy left the Khomas Region for the first time and will be in the Erongo Region at Kolin Foundation Secondary School, for the entire year. The Weekend Chess Academy A team came in second place with 23/28 points after a nail biting race to the end. TWCA A team players won themselves N$600.00 plus silver medals for each player, Chez-Ray Allies, Julian Isaak, Mitch Nitzborn and Christo Retief. TWCA A lead the team tournament for 3 consecutive rounds and unfortunately faltered in the final round when they draw against Okahandja Secondary School A Team 2:2. This is a great improvement from 2007 when TWCA came 12th overall. The TWCA B team was not too far behind tying with Okahandja Secondary School and Martti Ahtisaari Primary School with 17.5/28 points.
Okahandja Secondary School A team came from behind and scored 17.5/28. The team earned N$400.00 for their effort and each team player got a bronze medal. Indongo Melvin, Namaseb Fritz, Namaseb Eric and Coetzee Abed hold their own to tie for 3rd position. The team dropped one spot to 3rd position from the 2nd position they last year.
The event was well attended by 36 teams. The Schools came from all over the country. Some teams like Hoeksteen Primary School from Rosh Pinah, Khorab Combined School from Otavi, Paresis Secondary School from Otjiwarongo, Kolin Foundation from Arandis, Wennie Du Plessis from Gobabis and M&K Gertze from Rehoboth, to name just a few.
The Weekend Chess Academy sponsored the event to the tune of N$2,000.00. The coaches at TWCA Josef and Max can be reached for chess lessons at 0811227132 or 0811221183 respectively.
Worth mentioning are Christo Retief and Julian Isaaks' performance when they scored 100% on their respective boards. They where followed by Chez-Ray Allies and Jack Tjaronda with 85.70%, and Xenophone with 78.60%.The coaches believe that the TWCA team will do even better next year and are looking forward to this event.
