Tjaronda, little chess genius

NICOLA Tjaronda stole the limelight on Saturday and received the chess player of the tournament accolade during a selection tournament in Windhoek over the weekend.

The Namibia Schools Sports Union (NSSU) and the Namibia Chess Federation (NCF) held a team selection chess tournament to participate against South Africa.All 13 regions were invited, as well as the qualifiers of the Bank Windhoek Open Chess Championships, but only six of the 13 regions competed with 63 participants.Namibia’s Nicola Tjaronda, who is only 10 years of age and with one and a half years of chess training at TWCA, defeated three high school boys and drew with two.She completely dominated the girls’ section.Her victories were against Victor Nangombe, Patricia Teek, Lishen Mentile, Paulus Shituna and Calvin Eichab. She drew against Julian Isaak and Eric Namaseb after she outplayed her opponents. She did not lose a single game and came third with 6/7. Due to a lower progressive score, she was named as the schoolgirls’ champion for 2009.Tjaronda is the first girl who competed against the boys at her age in a formal tournament She remained focused throughout the chess tournament and played attacking chess like a genius. Her beautiful encounter against Calvin Eichab displayed Grandmaster technique. She is a definite talent and coach Josef Nitzborn promised to teach her more good stuff to rake in more victories. Many of the spectators thought that she was a boy when she played, only to realise that she is a little girl with a big heart and lots of talent.The overall winner of the National School Team Selection Chess Tournament was Hange Tjingaete, a learner at Academia and chess student at The Zandell Chess Academy, with a score of 6/7. Tjingaete fought off Julian Isaak in their round 6 encounter which ended in a draw. He however could not convert a slight advantage in round 7 against Melvin Indongo and had to accept a draw. In second position was Julian Isaak with 6/7. Isaak is another gem from TWCA and had to admit that Tjaronda was in top form and he had to fight hard to rescue a lost game. In third position came Tjaronda, also with 6/7 and she was clearly the player of the chess tournament with a phenomenal rating performance of 1 745, according to the pairing system Swiss perfect.Ten learners qualified for the encounter against South Africa. They are as follows: Hange Tjingaete, Julian Isaak, Nicola Tjaronda, Melvin Indongo, Eric Namaseb, Calvin Eichab, Uukelo Titus, Dantago Boois, Lishen Mentile and Jack Tjaronda. There are also five reserves in the event that any of the 10 qualifiers won’t be able to make it. They are Mitch Nitzborn, James Indongo, Kiiga Angula, Paulinus Shilombuleni and Israel Shikongo. The Namibian team is ready to participate in South Africa and will be further coached by National Chess Coach Charles Eichab.