Amos Chigowo has won the third edition of the Southern Region Chess League (SRCL) online chess tournament, beating South Africa-based chess professional, Joseph Mwale who won the previous two competitions.

Chigowo clinched the first prize of K20, 000 after securing 12 points in the 15-round tournament held on Sunday evening, July 12.

According to the league’s publicity secretary, Wadza Ottomani, this was the league’s third and final online chess tournament organized with sponsorship from Dr. Goodwin Ulaya and Wasoka Chirwa.

Ottomani said “Candidate Master Petros Mfune, popularly known as Razor Blade, and Africa Amateurs Chess Champion Chiletso Chipanga won the second and third cash prizes of K15, 000 and K10, 000, respectively after Mfune secured 11 points while Chipanga scored 10.5 points.”

Mwale won the inaugural SRCL online chess tournament and defended the title in the second tournament but he has lost the third and final edition of the competition after dropping to fourth position with 10.5 points.

Priyasha Shriyan emerged the best player in the Ladies’ Section and won K7, 000 while Chess Association of Malawi (Chessam) President, Susan Namangale, won the second cash prize of K3, 000.

Shriyan and Namangale scored 7 and 5.5 points, respectively

Forty chess players competed in the online chess tournament and they played 280 Blitz games with a 3+0 time control on www.lichess.org, an open-source internet chess server.

Two individuals Dr. Godwin Ulaya and Mr. Wasoka Chirwa provided K200, 000 to SRCL for the sponsorship of three online chess tournaments.

SRCL organized the online chess tournaments to observe social distancing and comply with restrictions on public gatherings following the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.