Monkagedi Gaotlhobogwe
20 November 2008
Botswana chess star Phemelo Khetho's reputation at the ongoing Olympiad in Dresden, Germany continues to soar. By yesterday, the IT professional had jumped from being position 59 to 25.
Khetho is now one of the four Fide Masters (FM) to break into the top 25. With 29 others, he is tied with the number eight player on four points.
In his latest FIDE standing, he is ahead of 50 Grand Masters (GM) making the prestigious list of the top 100. The giant leap by Khetho comes after notching his fourth victory in five games at the Olympiad. There are only six players with 4.5 points. The lead player is Bulgarian GM, Lotov Valentin who is unbeaten in five games.
The biggest by yesterday was unrated Gabonese player Moulain Jean Pierre, who was 18th with the same number of points as Khetho. Another untitled but highly rated player breaking into the top 100 list is Pakistani Waqa Mohammed.
Khetho has defeated Hoogendijk Cornelis Willem of Ghana, International Master (IM) Irwanto Sadikin of Indonesia, IM Liiva Riho of Estonia and Mensing Fabio of Antilles. He lost fellow FM Patriarca Luis of Paraguay. The games continued yesterday (Wednesday) after a one-day break.
While Khetho's star continues to shine in Dresden, the rest of the players in the men's team are experiencing mixed fortunes. Ignatius Njobvu registered his second consecutive loss, along with Barileng Gaealashwe. Njobvu has a point, while Gaealashwe has 1.5 points. Gaelashwe's first point against Ghana was a walk over. Tebogo Pitlagano has managed two consecutive draws against opponents from Paraguay and Antilles after beating his Ghanaian opponent.
The Botswana men's team was scheduled to play Nepal in round six at the time of going to press. The team has nine points after notching 1.5 points against Antilles in round five.
Meanwhile, the Botswana women's team got 1.5 points out of a possible four from their meeting with Wales on Monday in the fifth round. This follows the 2-2 draw with Tajikistan on Sunday after a 4-0 setback against Iran on Saturday.
Ontiretse Sabure of Botswana beat Odinaeda Saodat of Tajikistan to register her first point at the Dresden Olympiad and followed this with a win against Owens Megan of Wales on Monday.
The Botswana women's board one player, Tshepiso Lopang, who had just half a point ahead of the meeting with Tajikistan on Sunday increased her tally to 1.5 points after defeating Antonova Nadezhda. She drew with Blackburn Suzie of Wales in the next game. FM Bokhutso Mudongo, who won a first ever Olympiad medal by an African woman in 2002, has half a point after five games. She has suffered three consecutive losses along with Gorata Sebetso, who remains with one point. The women were scheduled to play Seychelles yesterday.
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