ZIMBABWE Chess Federation Secretary General Todd Mapingire says all is set for the annual Easter Open Chess tournament scheduled to kick off on Friday in Masvingo.
For the first time in three decades, the Easter Open will be held outside Harare as Zimbabwe the federation tries to decentralize the game.
"We have taken the tournament to Masvingo because we want to spread these competitions across the country.
"So this is part of our primary goal this year to make sure such big tournaments are spread across the country," said Mapingire.
Scheduled to run for four days, the tournament will see players competing in three categories, namely, Open Section, Ladies Section and Development Section.
The secretary general added that more than two hundred athletes so far have registered for the event, and amongst those are a few foreigners.
"We are having a good turn out, our target is to have more than two hundred competitors and we are within the range because so far more than 100 have registered.
"We also have foreigners that are coming for the event so it is promising to be entertaining," he said.
All eyes in Masvingo will be on the defending champion Emerald Mushore who won the tournament last year although he is likely going to face tough competition from the highly-rated foreigners who are coming for the event.
