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Takudzwa Chitsiga-Sports Reporter

THE Zimbabwe Chess Federation’s acting president Muchakanakirwa Mkanganwi is looking for a smooth transition to 2023 following the successes in his first year in charge.

Mkanganwi has been at the realm for six months, after taking over the reins last July.

He said he is looking forward to a better 2023 after a successful 2022 calendar.

“In the past year we successfully completed a draft constitution which mirrors the FIDE constitution and awaits ratification by the affiliates at the next general assembly to be held by June 2023.

“We have started the process of working on transitional measures to ensure that chess continues to be played and that we build towards life after the constitution ratification. The future of chess leadership as envisioned in the constitution to be run by a six-member council, 10 provincial chairpersons and commissions that have specific developmental and operational roles within chess,” said Mukanganwi.

The Harare businessman took time to thank sponsors who helped him during his short stint saying he is looking forward to working with them in the coming year.

“We were able to send a men’s and women’s team to the 2022 Olympiad. We raised sponsorship from Edgars, Old Mutual, The Indian Embassy, Zimre Holdings, The Pulse Group, Crystal Candy, the Sports Commission and United Refineries. Our teams performed very well as the men’s team rankings moved up internationally to fourth in Africa after Egypt, Tunisia and South Africa.  

“We were able to secure CABS to sponsor our annual, now named CABS Candidates Chess tournament and CBZ Holdings as sponsors for the CBZ Nationals Chess Competitions.

This is over and above the annual Minerva Sponsorship of the Minerva Zimbabwe Open Chess Tournament. 

We had a strategy session in August 2022 at Cresta Jameson sponsored by Minerva and we got good visibility of the challenging but not insurmountable work ahead of us. 

We appreciated (Harare businessman) Shingai Mutasa’s presence at the session. New World Properties continued to sponsor our beautiful office space at Joina City,” added Mkanganwi.