WOMAN Fide Master (WFM) Lorita Mwango has tightened her hold on the top of the Africa Individual Chess Championships after stretching her unbeaten to six matches.
With two rounds to play before the end of the event, all Mwango needs to do is hold her nerve to the very end to ensure she is crowned Zambia’s first ever Woman Grandmaster (WGM).
Her next games are not the easiest though.
By press time, she was set to take on Algerian Woman International Master (WIM) Lina Nassr.
Mwango has been potent all along the tournament with her worst result being the stalemates she recorded against in rounds four and five.
Those draws were not too much of a disappointment in that they came against highly rated players in the tournament in the name of WIM Moaataz Ayah and WGM Shahenda Wafa all of Egypt.
So, after slowing down in rounds four and five, she rebounded in round six with an easy win over fellow WFM Eloho Ogbiyoyo of Nigeria.
This run of four wins and two draws has seen her take sole leadership of the Women Section with five points, half a point better than second placed WIM Lina Nassr.
Her counterpart Phylis Mwilole is sitting 31st with 1.5 points after an awful run of four losses, one win and one stalemate.
In the Open Section where Zambia is being represented by four players, International Master (IM) Chitumbo Mwali suffered an upset after going down to Ugandan Fide Master (FM) Patrick Kuwama.
This is Mwali’s second loss at the tournament leaving him on four points at par with compatriots IMs Andrew Kayonde and Gillian Bwalya.
Kayonde beat Nigeria’s Isaac Okeke while Bwalya was a round six winner over Methu Maragu of Kenya.
FM Prince Mulenga also managed a win over Fishan Mwagomba of Malawi.
The players were by press time set to take on their round seven opponents.