ZRP Tomlison Depot Primary School were the overall winners of the annual school chess tournament held in Harare at the weekend.

The tournament, now in its second edition was hosted by Windview Primary School, who finished in second place.  Avondale Primary School were third.

ZRP Tomlison Depot scooped five medals and Windview collected four. This is the second year running that Windview has hosted this invitational tourney.

The tournament involved 19 primary schools and had 103 participants drawn from all over Zimbabwe. The schools included among others hosts Windview, Twin Rivers, Avondale, Hartman House, Shingirai, Mutasa, Chiremba, Courtney Selous, Alfred Beit, Mupfundu from Bindura and winners Tomlison Depot.

There were two age groups at the tournament, the Under-nine and the Under-13. Danmore Gandazha, the chairperson for the media committee for Windview Primary School, said 20 pupils were chosen at the end of the competition to go and represent Zimbabwe in an invitational tournament in South Africa in August this year.

Some of the children who made it onto the list include Jonatan Mashingaidze, Tatenda Mutambanembwa and Tafara Kwashira.

“This year’s attendance was lower than last year’s maybe because of the cash crunch. We promise to make it bigger and better next year by extending invitations in time to more schools,” said Gandazha.

Avondale Primary School were the inaugural winners when they scooped seven of the 30 medals which were up for the grab. The other medals were shared among the other schools.

According to Gandazha, chess standards are improving as more and more schools are now getting involved. Chess has also been taken to the lower grades such as grade two’s and threes.

“At Windview, all pupils have a chess set. This year we have grades two and three going out to South Africa to represent the country. One pupil, Mawire from Avondale is one such pupil. Mawire was unbeaten in all her five games at this year’s tourney. She is part of the delegation to South Africa in August this year.”

The inaugural primary schools annual chess tournament was held at Windview last year and participants were drawn from schools all over Zimbabwe with some coming from as far as Kwekwe, Gokwe and Bindura.