Mushore wins the 2024 Zeroim Fruit Juice Bar blitz

Emerald T Mushore closed the year on a high note by winning the 2024 Zeroim Fruit Juice Bar blitz tournament held at the Harare Club Hotel over the weekend. The well attended colorful event was organized by Zimbabwe Chess Consultancy in partnership with Zeroim Fresh Fruit Juice Bar and the Harare Chess Society.

Mushore of Harare City chess club emerged the winner after an intense 13 swiss -rounds of 3 mins +2 sec blitz fending off competition from the likes of club team mate CM Vitalis Mapuranga, and the evergreen Spencer Masango along the way. The 2024 National Chess Champion drew with FM Roy Mwadzura and FM Zhemba Jemusse. At the end he stood tied with Mwadzura at 11 points winning only on the Buchholz Tie-Break.

Linda D Shaba finished as the highest ranked lady in the tournament having won 7 games dispensing Elisha Chimbamu, Tapiwa Gora among others on her path. Linda also faced FM Mwadzura and the 2024 Candidates Champion Tanaka Katsande but lost to both.

The star studded tournament had all age groups in one pool only separated by who wielded the sharpest knife on the day. Some veterans who graced the event include Lewis Magaya, Sithole Hardwork and Admire Mawire who in search of their former glory also had settles to score with each other but found the going very tough as they were worn out by the stiff competition from the young.

The 2024 Zeroim Fresh Juice Blitz Tournament was well received and carried a glowing excitable vibe. Tournaments remain so few in number within the Zimbabwe Chess space mainly due to lack of enough sponsors to finance the booking of decent venues and lucrative prize funds.